2019-03-01 World Soccer

he last 10 places at this year’s
expanded African Nations Cup
will be decided over the weekend
of March 22-24, with South
Africa facing the prospect of
an embarrassing setback, while
tiny Burundi and Lesotho are both one result away
from first ever appearances at the finals.
South Africa, who won the title in 1996, are
unbeaten in their group and have only conceded
one goal in five qualifiers yet, bizarrely, they will miss
out if they lose away to Libya in their last game.
They began Group E with a victory in Nigeria and
looked set to go to the finals – even more so when it
was then announced that the Nations Cup field would
be expanded to 24 teams, with the first two in each of
the 12 four-team groups qualifying.
However, goalless draws at home to Libya and away

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to Seychelles have left them in a precarious position.

Nigeria have already secured top spot and Libya,

who trail South Africa by two points, will leapfrog

their opponents if they win in March.

Libya are still forced to play “home” matches

at neutral venues, usually in neighbouring Egypt

or Tunisia, because of the tenuous security situation

in their country and South Africa’s Stuart Baxter has

already promised to quit if his team fail to qualify. The

English-born coach has been treading on thin ice after

the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in which South Africa

contrived to throw away a position of strength, losing

home and away to Cape Verde – a country whose

entire population would comfortably fit into one of

Johannesburg’s suburbs.

Failure for South Africa would be made even more

embarrassing if there was a place in the finals for

Lesotho, the tiny mountain kingdom completely

surrounded by South Africa.

To get through, Lesotho must win away to Cape

Verde, but a draw will do if Tanzania fail to beat

Uganda, who are already through from Group L.

Burundi stand a much better chance. They need

only to draw their last Group C game, against Gabon,

whose talisman striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is

increasingly picking which games he will play in for the

national team and which

he will not. If there is any

arduous travel involved,

he is suddenly injured.

DR Congo should beat

Liberia at home in their

last game to go through

from Group G, along with

Zimbabwe who will

advance with a home

draw against Congo.

Cameroon should

get the point they

need at home against

Comoros to secure their

finals berth but their

continued participation

is the subject of a protest

from the tiny island

nation, who have taken

the issue to Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS).

Comoros want Cameroon to be totally disqualified

from the 2019 tournament in the wake of their

being stripped of the hosting of the event, opening

a potential path for the small Indian Ocean island

to qualify for the finals for the first time.

Comoros want CAF to invoke article 92 of the

Nations Cup regulations which says that if a country

is stripped of the hosting of a finals it is disqualified,

as happened to Morocco when they were stripped

of the 2015 finals.

But with CAF seemingly ignoring the issue, Comoros

have sought relief from CAS in Switzerland

“I know that Cameroon is an important country

in African football, but the rules are the same for

everyone,” says Comoros Football Federation president

Said Athoumane. “If we start by favouring so-and-so on

the pretext that they are a big name in continental

football, this will not be fair.”

COULD STILL

QUALIFY

GROUP B

Cameroon,

Comoros

GROUP C

Burundi, Gabon

GROUP D

Benin, Gambia,

Togo

GROUP E

Libya, South

Africa

GROUP G

Congo,

DR Congo,

Liberia, Zimbabwe

GROUP I

Angola, Burkina

Faso

GROUP K

Guinea-Bissau,

Mozambique,

Namibia

GROUP L

Cape Verde

Islands, Lesotho,

Tanzania

ALREADY

QUALIFIED

GROUP A

Madagascar,

Senegal

GROUP B

Morocco

GROUP C

Mali

GROUP D

Algeria

GROUP E

Nigeria

GROUP F

Kenya, Ghana

GROUP H

Guinea, Ivory

Coast

GROUP I

Mauritania

GROUP J

Egypt, Tunisia

GROUP L

Uganda

Goalless...Libya’s

Muaid Ellafi stops

Sifiso Hlanti of

South Africa

Point needed...

Cameroon’s Eric

Maxim Choupo-

Moting (left)

Coach...Baxter

T

South Africa’s Stuart Baxter has already

promised to quit if his team fail to qualify