2013 AFCON South Africa - The 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) championship, taking place in South Africa from 19 January to 10 February, is an African show, yet it has a global flavour because 'Even though there are 16 countries featuring, the 368 players in the finals are drawn from the leagues of 54 countries and almost across all the continents!' Apart from Africa, the players are drawn from diverse leagues of South America, North America, Europe and Asia. Some of the players are drawn from the top football leagues of England, France, Spain, and Germany in Europe. Others are from China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates in Asia and Brazil in South America.
Even the lesser leagues of Cyprus, Luxembourg, Moldavia, Slovenia and Vietnam are not left out. Only two players of the 368, Amadou Kader and Modibo Sidibe, both of Niger Republic, are unattached – a technical way to describe clubless players.
The leagues in continents outside Africa account for more than half of the players who will take the centre stage as the African Nations Cup kicks off Saturday.
No fewer than 201 of the 368 players at the competitions are from the football leagues outside Africa. Also, 230 of the 368 players are outside their domestic league as 29 of them play in other African leagues outside their own countries. Therefore, only 130 players are actually plying their trade in their domestic leagues.
But the country with the largest contribution of players to the competition is France whose league has provided 56 players. They are followed by England which will lose 20 players.
Portugal follows with 17 of the African players in its league leaving for the African Cup of Nations. Next are Spain, Belgium and Turkey who have 10 players each coming to South Africa.
Most European Clubs have always complained about losing the services of key African players during the continental fiesta which holds every two years unlike the World Cup and the European Nations Cup that hold every four years.
The situation, most claimed, is further aggravated in years of the World Cup when they will in addition have most of their African players unavailable also in the period of the African Nations Cup.
They suggested that the African Nations Cup should either be held every four years, or if the two-yearly calendar is retained, the competition should be moved to June or July when most European leagues will be on recess.
Five years ago, the issue was put forward to the legendary former Ghana star, Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew, who explained that moving the African Nations Cup to June or July was not feasible, citing climatic factors.
That period will witness heavy rainfall in most African countries, thus making the competition unattractive.
It was partly to appease the various European leagues that CAF resolved to shift its premier competition from the even-number years to the odd years. The last time it was held in the odd year was in 1965 when Tunisia hosted.
Over the years, the African Nations Cup has become a global spectacle owing to the influx of top African players making waves in the lucrative and the overhyped European leagues.
Some years back, the regulations of the African Nations Cup provided for inclusion of just two players outside the frontiers of the participating teams.
Now it is common for the entire squad to be drawn outside the countries’ borders as Nigeria, for instance, had demonstrated in the past 13 years. Save the current squad which has inclusion of six players from the domestic league, all players that Nigeria featured since the 2000 competition were foreign-based.
In fact, the last home-based players to feature for Nigeria at the African Nations Cup were Uche Okafor, then of the defunct Lagos ACB and Isaac Semitoje of the then Iwuanyanwu Nationale. They featured at the 1994 edition in Tunisia where Nduka Ugbade was listed as unattached having just returned to Nigeria after a stint with Castellon in Spain.
This year, Ethiopia, Nigeria’s last Group C opponents, have the highest concentration of home boys in its squad. The 23-man squad has 20 from the domestic league while the three others are from Egypt, Sweden and the sole player from the USA league.
Next in terms of domestic content are the hosts, South Africa, whose team is composed of 16 players from their league. In addition, the South African league also contributes nine other players to the teams of Zambia (four players), Niger Republic (two), Togo (two) and Ghana (one).
Other teams with substantial local input are Angola (14), Tunisia (12), and the trio of Algeria, Morocco and Niger who have eight local players each. Cameroon and Egypt, the glaring absentees at the South Africa 2013, can perhaps take consolation in their leagues supplying some players. Cameroon league is represented by Dakonam Ortega Djene a Togolese player featuring for Coton Sport de Garoua.
The suspended Egyptian league has Mohammed Koffi of Petrojet and Ali Rabo of El Shorta club, featuring for Burkina Faso as well as Saladin Ahmed of Ethiopia whose Egyptian club is Wadia Dagla.
Pana 20/01/2013