African Cup of Nations and going to South Africa

Well I haven't used my blog for a while because with my new job I wanted to wait and see how far I could go with this. However football is not an issue they will be concerned with so I can talk about my month of watching the African Nations Cup and the build up to South Africa.

Firstly CAF, the most backward inconsiderate federation that ever existed in the world of football. My main gripe this time is the banning of Togo for the next 2 cups in Gabon/Equitoral Guinea and Libya. This is the perhaps the most ludicrous decision I've ever seen. I'm no fan of Togo but to ban them for getting shot at and fearing for their lives and wanting to bury their dead is astounding. I really can't put into words how awful this is. Does CAF have no relation to the real world? I can assure you if it was an England team then we would not only have left the tournament but banning all our sports men from going there and persuading UEFA to do the same. The Copa America usually invites a couple of countries and I hope they do invite Togo to stick two fingers at CAF.
This leads me on to people saying this will affect South Africa. Nonsense. South Africa and Angola are two very different places and I didn't thing the Olympics in Athens should of been stopped because of violence in the middle east. This is just stereotyping and not appreciating the different struggles in different Southern African countries. I have and had family in Angola and Cabinda and this is a domestic issue not a regional one.

One last rant, Issa Hayatou is a tool. He's the president of CAF. Along with his atrocious handling of the Cabinda affair he also complained that we were not promoting African football enough. Now the entire African Nations cup was on terrestrial TV and Eurosport. I can't say the same about the Copa America (far superior) and the Asian Football Championship. If CAF spent more time getting people into stadiums and structuring African football properly perhaps there would of been a better spectacle to watch.

The first game Angola V Mali was entertaining but if you can't keep a 4-0 lead at home for the last 11 minutes then it's telling you something about the quality of the team. It wasn't a great tournament but there were a few good signs. Ghana's youngsters were very impressive and Kojo Asamoah looked the real deal. I can see how they won the U20 world cup and with Essien, Appiah and Muntari still to come back into the team they look the hottest prospect for the coming decade. Egypt though were the only class team in the tournament, now 3 times champions and deservedly so. How they didn't qualify for the world cup I have no idea. Their striker Gedo was super sub of the tournament and took his goal in the final well.

As for the world cup teams, Ghana as I said had a weakened team but still got to the final. Algeria lost all discipline and finished with 8 men and a thrashing at the hands to Egypt. England have nothing to fear from them (famous last words). Ivory Coast were disappointing losing to a poor Algeria in the quarter finals. They will struggle against Portugal and Brazil in the World Cup. Cameroon struggled to get out a simple group and Nigeria were lucky against Zambia and lacked real quality. As for South Africa, well they weren't even good enough to qualify for this tournament so enough said.

I fear for the African teams in this world cup and I don't think any of them will get out of their group with the possible exception of Ghana. They look like the only team capable of defending a lead. The other sides have specks of quality; Drogba, Kalou, Eto'o and Toure but once you scratch the surface there is very little underneath and are not teams. They look good going forward but are naive defensively.

OK one last rant this time to do with the world cup in South Africa. I really want to go but I'm appalled how little FIFA and South Africa are doing to stop this being a tournament about money. Emirates the official sponsor of the world cup is charging £1500 to fly to the world cup. British Airways are little better. The best deal I have found is from Air Mauritius for around £800. Add to this the price of group matches are £80 more than double than that in Germany in 2006. Hotels and internal flights are also seeing this as a money making scheme. England will have the second largest contingent of fans in South Africa after the USA but we will be sending tickets back even though the demand here is massive. A two week trip for the world cup will cost around £2500. This is ridiculous and South Africa is shooting itself in the foot by allowing it to happen. Rant over.