The annoying Africa Cup of Nations

It’s so sad as an African to have to admit it but the Africa Cup of Nations is annoying.

A real football lover will definitely have this feeling about the tournament shortly known as AFCON.

Following football, one thing becomes quite clear.

Matches, tournaments and leagues are structured and scheduled in a way that’s convenient for everyone.

Leagues like the English Premier League, La Liga, UEFA Champions League are the most consistent, holding on an annual basis.

Tournaments like the World Cup, AFCON, Olympics come every other year.

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Matches are so many, but the beauty of them all is that they are held in such a way as not to inconvenience each other.

This is why when FIFA holds its qualifying matches during the football league season, the leagues go on break to accommodate them.

This is why FIFA holds its tournaments when the leagues are officially over for the season, and not just FIFA which is the global head of football, but regional associations like UEFA, CONMEBOL.

Curiously, however, the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) which is the regional body in charge of African football holds its most important football tournament, AFCON, when the leagues are in full bloom.

And unlike other country cup tournaments like it that hold every four years, AFCON is staged every two years in January.

And when it’s time for AFCON, much grumbling and criticisms trail it because the bulk of the players who will participate in it will be drawn from clubs in Europe that are pursuing their domestic leagues and are at a crucial stage and then still have to lose important players to a tournament that can and should be held when leagues are ended for the season.

Pray, is this not annoying?

And it’s not just annoying, but also worrying that the eggheads at CAF have refused to address this anomaly as it simply proves that African football won’t develop the way it should because those entrusted with it are taking the wrong steps about it.

How annoying, because it’s so simple yet it’s causing so many unnecessary problems.

AFCON should be held in years when other major tournaments aren’t and should be every four years to make it valuable.

But when it’s held in January every two years at the expense of domestic leagues who pay the players, it will continue to be derided and rightly so.

AFCON 2021 in particular, holding from this Sunday, January 9 to February, 6, 2022 in Cameroon has come under so much fire with many unsavoury comments aimed at it by frustrated European football stakeholders and we really can’t blame them as CAF refuses to do what prevents other major football tournaments from being attacked, and rightly so.