OVERVIEW
instant dismissal for coach Javier Aguirre
and the resignation of Egypt FA president
Hany Abo Rida, a FIFA Council member
who might yet feel the backlash of an
unhappy military regime.
Crowds were dismal, as they usually
are at Cup of Nations tournaments for
matches not involving the hosts, and
once Egypt departed the tournament
was condemned to half-empty stands
for most of the remaining games.
A big positive was that football
returned to the cavernous Cairo
International Stadium, one of the
continent’s iconic venues, kept closed
by paranoid authorities for too long.
The summer heat made games taxing
at times but the decision to move the
tournament to mid-year was welcomed,
most importantly by the players, who are
no longer condemned to an ugly tug of
war between club and country.
In between the football, CAF’s
discredited leadership managed to
further muddy already polluted waters
at their Congress on the eve of the Final,
where beleaguered president Ahmad saw
off challenges to his power and fired his
first vice-president, all with Gianni
Infantino on site.
Ahmad remains in charge despite
a FIFA ethics investigation into alleged
corruption, theft and sexual harassment.
FIFA has taken over the running of
CAF from August 1 with Fatma Samoura
parachuted into the Cairo HQ to try to fixthings, but just what game Infantino
is playing by allowing Ahmad to stay
in his post is unclear.
Unlike the politicians, casualties came
quickly among the coaches. There were
ugly exchanges between Paul Put and
the Guinea federation after they lost in
the second round, while Herve Renard’s
dream of a third title with three different
countries was sabotaged by Morocco’s
propensity to self-destruct.
Other coaches out of a job after^
the tournament were Clarence Seedorf
(Cameroon), Ricardo Mannetti (Namibia),
Emmanuel Amunike (Tanzania),
Sebastien Desabre (Uganda) and
Sunday Chidzamba (Zimbabwe).
The next Nations Cup is scheduled
for Cameroon, given a second chance
to host, but it could yet be a weary road
of repeated inspections and political
manoeuvering before this is confirmed.
Ivory Coast (2023) and Guinea
(2025) are then scheduled as next hosts
but a 24-team tournament has certainly
moved the goalposts.one of 14 French-born players in Algeria’s
2019-winning squad.
Senegal will have to wait until a future
tournament to finally bag a continental
crown. They were the better side in the
Final, but Sadio Mane, fatigued at the
end of an elongated season, was unable
to provide the spark they needed.
Nigeria finished third for a record
seventh time, but their tournament will
be best remembered for the loss they
suffered in the group stage to final
rookies Madagascar.
The 24-team format
saw three teams make
their debut – Burundi,
Madagascar and Mauritania- while Benin, Kenya,
Namibia and Tanzania all
returned after a lengthy hiatus.
Fears that the expanded tournament
might mean even more turgid affairs than
some of the bland games witnessed in
the past were not realised and upsets in
the knockout stage gave the tournament
a major lift, even if the victims did include
the hosts.
Defeat in the last 16 was a major
disaster for Egypt, who staked much
political capital on their staging of the
finals. They had stepped in with just six
months to prepare after Cameroon was
found to be ill-prepared.
It was supposed to be a chance for
president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to increase
his popularity in a football-mad country,
where the security restrictions on crowds
at domestic games over the last seven
years reflect the authorities’ nervousness
that the stadium terraces are a breeding
ground for political dissent.
But even with Mohamed Salah digging
deep to carry the massive burden of
expectation despite an exhausting season
with Liverpool, Egypt fell short. It meant
Federation boss Mohamed Raouraoua
who introduced the rule change that saw
FIFA end draconian eligibility rules to
allow players who had represented one
country at junior level to later commit for
another if they possessed dual nationality.
This meant Algeria, whose previous
AFCON success came on home soil in
1990, could pick from an impressive list
of former French junior internationals
who did not step up to play for Les Bleus.
This list, however, did not include
Mahrez, who the French system missed
when he was a youngster but who was
Riyad Mahrez was one of
14 French-born players in
Algeria’s 2019-winning squad
Out...Egypt fans
watch their team
exit the tournamentJoyous...fans line the
streets to see Algeria
take part in an open-
top bus parade in the
capital Algiers