Afcon set for major revamp
NEW CHIEF HAS IDEAS Legendary players to give input at Rabat get-together.
The controversial timing of the Africa Cup of Nations faces a serious review when African football gathers for a two-day symposium in Morocco to discuss the future of the game on the continent.
Starting today in Rabat, stakeholders from across the sport, including an array of former African giants of the game like Abedi Pele Ayew, Jay-Jay Okocha and Samuel Eto’o, have been invited to deliberate over the future of the tournament and other aspects of the African game.
New Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad promised a blanket review when he successfully challenged long-standing leader Issa Hayatou for the top job in March.
Ahmad, who uses only a single name, also wants to review rules on hosting the finals, which are proving increasingly prohibitive and reducing the number of potential candidates.
He has already suggested co-hosting which would allow Caf to consider proposals to increase the number of teams at the finals to 24 – almost half the organisation’s membership.
The frequency of the tournament would also be reviewed although there seems little appetite to change it from every two years to every four.
Hosting the tournament every two years in January means the leading players, drawn increasingly from clubs in major European leagues, face a tug-of-war for their services, caught between duty for their national team and clubs that employ them.
Ahead of this year’s tournament held in Gabon there was an unprecedented number of players who turned down national call-ups to stay with their clubs. Those numbers are expected to rise if the next finals in Cameroon are hosted in January 2019 rather than a more convenient mid-year slot.
Hayatou persistently refused to entertain any change because he did not want to be seen to be buckling to pressure from European clubs. He blamed inclement weather patterns in Africa for not holding the Nations Cup in midyear, but this argument was forhave gotten when only African countries were bidding to host the 2010 World Cup.
The Rabat symposium will also assess the annual African club competitions, which this year had the number of clubs involved in the group stage doubled to 16.
Each African country has been invited to send its football association president, general secretary and national coach. –