AFCON
Morocco’s Cup Of Nations Calamity Contrasts With World Cup Heroics –
Another African Cup of Nations calamity for Morocco keeps up a consistent sequence of failure in the tournament that contrasts starkly with their performance at the last World Cup.
Morocco became the first African side to reach the World Cup semi-finals some 14 months ago and went into the Cup of Nations finals as favourites.
Prior to the tournament, they had one loss in 12 games and invested heavily in their preparations, including arriving a week before kick off in the Ivory Coast to adjust to the severe heat and suffocating humidity.
But their hopes ended on Tuesday with elimination in the last 16, keeping up their poor record in the Cup of Nations, which they have won only once some 48 years ago.
They were beaten 2-0 by South Africa in another of the upset results that have characterised the tournament.
Morocco were making a 19th finals appearance but their win in 1976 remains their single tournament triumph, contrasting with six World Cup finals appearances from 1970 when Africa had limited representation.
Over the last decade, Morocco have gone into the Cup of Nations highly fancied and with many key players based at top European clubs, as well as resources that almost all African countries can only dream of.
But the Cup of Nations remains an unfathomable bogey for them, as coach Walid Regragui said.
“For us Morocco, the reality is that the Cup of Nations is always a complicated tournament,” he told Reuters.
“This is not the first time Morocco arrived as favourite and a potential winner. Before almost every finals, we are among the favourite nations for the title. But unfortunately, we have not managed to be regularly among the last four in this tournament. Our last final was in 2004.”
Morocco’s record in the knockout stage is poor. They have not got past the quarter-final stage in their last eight Cup of Nations finals, and of the 15 knockout matches they have contested at the tournament they have won four.
“We are sad for ourselves, and all the Moroccans who expected a lot from us,” added captain Romain Saiss.
“This Cup of Nations is a bit crazy, we should have done better. You have to be able to kill matches, especially when you have the opportunity. We will have to raise our heads and stop making this kind of mistake.”
-Reuters
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.
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.
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
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