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Pogba’s brother ruled-out of Guinea AFCON squad

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Florentin Pogba

 

Florentin Pogba, whose is the elder brother of the more popular Paul Pogba of Manchester United has been ruled out of their native county’s team to the Africa Cup of Nations.

He is one of the two players that Guinea has lost due to injury even as the Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in 13 days’ time.

Pogba, a defender with French Ligue 2 sides, FC Sochaux-Montbeliard and another defender,  Antoine Conte of Romania’s Universitatea Craiova, have been excluded from the Guinea squad.

Pogba’s club, on Sunday morning revealed that the 31-year old  sustained a knee injury and will therefore not be available for the 2021 AFCON.

To compound the injury woe, Conte had just returned from injury and decided to opt out of the tournament himself as he felt another, more fit player, could have a bigger impact on the team.

The Guinea Syli Nationale’s 27-man squad is being led by Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita and was initially built around Pogba and  former Barcelona player Ilaix Moriba.

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Guinea are drawn in Group B alongside last edition’s finalists Senegal as well as Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Guinea head coach, Kaba Diawara, has decided to replace the duo with Horoya AC defender Fode Camara and 21-year-old Gaoussou Youssouf Siby from Wakirya AC.

This bring the number of Guinean-based players to four, with three of them plying their trade for Horoya AC.

Full (updated) squad:

Goalkeepers: Aly Keita (Ostersund, Sweden), Ibrahima Kone (Hibernians, Malta), Moussa Camara (Horoya, Guinea).

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Defenders: Saidou Sow (St Etienne, France), Ibrahima Conte (Niort, France), Ousmane Kante (Paris FC, France), Mohamed Aly Camara (Young Boys, Switzerland), Pa Konate (Botev Plovdiv, Bulgaria), Issiaga Sylla (Toulouse, France), Mikael Dyrestam (Sarpsborg 08, Norway), Fode Camara (Horoya AC, Guinea).

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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AFCON

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

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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.

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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.

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CAF president blasts Ghana, others over stadium ban

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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.

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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.

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AFCON

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

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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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