Johannesburg, South Africa - The CAF Secretary General, Hicham El Amrani, a Moroccan, has hailed teams from West Africa for dominating the ongoing 2013 African Nations Cup in South Africa.
Seven of the eight quarter finalists are from the region. Hosts, South Africa, are the only side outside West Africa to have scaled the first-round hurdle.
In essence, the region has a 100 per cent score as all the teams from West Africa, including debutants, Cape Verde, are successful.
In fact, Cape Verde became the first debutant to scale through the opening round since two other West African teams, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, performed the feat 48 years ago.
While reviewing the 2013 tournament at Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg, the CAF Secretary General remarked that the football federations and the technical crew of West African countries deserved commendation.
He stated further that there was nothing CAF could do, if a particular region in the continent developed to the point that it provides all the final teams.
“We can only congratulate them and urge the other regions to catch up," said El Amrani.
He also spoke on the standard of officiating which many teams, especially Nigeria, complained about.
El Amrani said he can understand the frustration of some of the teams, saying "We can only continue to work towards the improvement of the standard of refereeing in the continent”.
Pana 01/02/2013