The tournament has been a clear opportunity for Egypt but there is a feeling the past month is best swept under the carpetWhen the curtain falls on Egypt’s Africa Cup of Nations on Friday night, the overwhelming sense among many local residents will be one of relief. Senegal and Algeria will contest the final but there is a feeling, at the end of a hastily arranged tournament that divided home supporters and saw their team fall short of expectations, that the past month is best swept under the carpet. The country sought political capital from extending the arm of help to its continent when Cameroon was stripped of hosting rights last year, but the gains have been hard to discern.“Nobody...
Giggs’s credentials under the microscope, Berahino’s Burundi opportunity and another international debut for RiceSpeaking to the Elis James Feast Of Football podcast last week, Ryan Giggs admitted Slovakia are his Wales side’s main rivals to qualify alongside Croatia from a group in which Hungary and and Azerbaijan are likely to do little more than make up the numbers. Despite having Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey on board, along with an influx of several exciting young prospects, their best performance under Giggs remains a 4-1 demolition of a dire Republic of Ireland side last September that perhaps gave fans unrealistic expectations of similar things to follow. They haven’t and Nations League defeats at home and away against Denmark, along with friendly...
Football-mad fans and the presence of Mohamed Salah can revive flagging tournament but for the fourth time in a row the original hosts – this time Cameroon – have had to be replacedSix weeks ago the notion that Egypt might host this summer’s Africa Cup of Nations had barely passed anyone’s lips. Yet Tuesday’s overwhelming decision by the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee has conferred on them that responsibility and it marks the end of a chaotic process that, quite aside from the logistical blundering that has brought about this situation, leaves the continent once again asking itself broader questions.Egypt’s candidacy was approved by a vote of 16 to one, with one abstention, a rival South African bid having...
The appointment of the Dutch duo to manage the national team has been met with scepticism but a successful trip to Comoros would help ease some of the pressureLocated at the tip of Grande Comore island in the Indian Ocean and surrounded by elegant palm trees that seem to look down on it like leafy floodlights, the Said Mohamed Cheikh Stadium is one of international football’s most picturesque venues. But when Comoros, ranked 149th in the world, host the champions of Africa on Saturday, all eyes will be on the visiting dugout, where Clarence Seedorf and his assistant manager, Patrick Kluivert, will oversee Cameroon for the first time. Related: Clarence Seedorf named Cameroon manager with Kluivert as assistant Related: World...
The new June start will reduce club-country wrangles but the weather could be a problem and the increase to 24 teams is a terrible ideaOn 26 October 1863 the representatives of 11 schools and football clubs met at the Freemasons’ Tavern near Covent Garden in London and founded the Football Association, seeking to establish a unified set of laws, essentially so that those who had gone to different public schools could play against each other when they met at university. Ever since, it feels, the notion of the sport as an end in itself, as a good to be cherished and protected, has been dwindling. Short-term self-interest rules. Related: Africa Cup of Nations to switch from January staging to June...