AFCON

Queiroz in heated exchange with Egyptian fan after Nigeria defeat

Published

3 years ago

January 12, 2022

Egypt manager Carlos Queiroz moved from fans hero to a villain on Tuesday in Garoua as he was spotted arguing with an Egyptian fan following the Pharaohs’ dreadful show against Nigeria.

Egypt couldn’t have asked for a worse start to their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations campaign in terms of both result and performance.

The Super Eagles were by far the more dangerous side for the entirety of the encounter and could’ve increased the gap if it wasn’t for Mohamed El-Shennawy’s heroic performance.

On the other hand, During the full 90 minutes, Egypt had just four shots at Maduka Okoye, two of them on target, while creating just three chances, compared to Nigeria’s 15.

Egyptian publication, Kingfut reports that several players were played outside of their regular positions.

Such players included Mostafa Mohamed and Mahmoud Trezeguet. This according to the publication, made the majority of fans and pundits fume at the Portuguese coach, saying he didn’t learn from the Arab Cup experience.

To cap off a miserable afternoon, Queiroz was seen engaging angrily with a member of the Egyptian supporters at the stadium after the full-time whistle.

A video emerged showing furious Carlos Queiroz in a heated exchange with a fan, who criticised the coach for the team’s performance, resulting in the Portuguese responding by asking the fan to come down to coach the team instead of him.

The defeat marked Egypt’s first AFCON opener one since 2002 when they lost to Senegal 1-0 and their first group-stage defeat when they fell against Algeria in Tunisia.

Carlos Queiroz will now try to amend the situation starting from Egypt’s next game against Sudan next Saturday, before facing Guinea-Bissau four days later.

Six points from these two games will surely secure qualification to the round of 16; however, a second-place finish will see Egypt face the winner of Group E, which is most likely will be one of Algeria or Cote d’Ivoire.

AFCON

Libya sacks coach ahead of AFCON qualifying back-to-back matches with Nigeria

Published

4 days ago

September 17, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Milutin Sredojević

The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.

This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.

Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.

His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.

Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.

The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.

According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.

He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.

According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.

AFCON

CAF president blasts Ghana, others over stadium ban

Published

4 days ago

September 17, 2024

Kunle Solaja

CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,

After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.

Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.

Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.

“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.

He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”

Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.

“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.

AFCON

Present and Past as CAF Coaches Symposium unites Rohr, Peseiro and Eguavoen

Published

1 week ago

September 12, 2024

Kunle Solaja

The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.

Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.

Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.

Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations