Translated material
Call of the Jungle
"Eagles", "elephants" and "lions" enter the fight for the African Cup
The African Cup kicks off this coming weekend, a tournament that has long been a bone in the throat of European clubs. For twenty days, from January 20 to February 10, Chelsea, Barcelona, Lyon, Real Madrid and a number of other smaller teams will be forced to do without their African foreign players while they repay their debts to their homeland.Plans have long been brewing in Europe to somehow ease the “African conscription” for themselves. But by and large there are only two real proposals. The first is to hold the African Cup not once every two years, but at least every four, the second is to move it somewhere in the summer, during the off-season, when most major tournaments take place. Africans do not like both initiatives. “It is impossible to move the competition to June because it is the rainy season in most African countries and it is too hot at this time,” said Mustafa Fahmy, secretary general of the Confederation of African Football, once again. - We know our continent better. Can Europeans hold the European Championships in Russia in January? I can also confirm that the Nations Cup will be held every two years until 2014. And when European clubs buy African players, they must keep in mind that they will be involved in national teams in January.”
Some have already followed Mustafa Fahmy's advice. Chelsea, for example, having delegated four main team players to the African Cup at once - Drogba, Essien, Mikel and Kalou, was forced to speed up the negotiation process on the transfers of Nicolas Anelka from Bolton and Bronislav Ivanovich from Lokomotiv. As a result, the Frenchman cost Roman Abramovich 30 million euros, and the Serbian, who recently signed a 4.5-year contract, cost 15 million euros. Chelsea is not alone in its misfortunes. Arsenal sent Ivorians Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue on a business trip, Sevilla lost their striker Kanoute-Kone, thanks to which Alexander Kerzhakov may get a chance to gain a foothold in the lineup. Barcelona lost Yaya Toure and Eto'o, Real Madrid lost Diarra, and French clubs, which traditionally rely on African players, were completely drained of blood.
The dissatisfaction of clubs that pay million-dollar contracts to their African stars and cannot use their services at the most crucial moment was ready to spill out in international courts - European giants, with the support of the well-known G-14 group, filed several lawsuits against African federations in this regard and received decent chances of success. But FIFA and UEFA intervened in the conflict situation. The beginning of the African Cup served as an additional catalyst for resolving relations between these organizations and the G-14. As a result, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were forced to promise to pay compensation to clubs for the absence of their players from such major tournaments as the World, European, African and Asian Championships.
In Africa, this news was hardly noticed - before the start of the tournament, the chances of the favorites were discussed more. The main one is considered to be the host team of the competition, Ghana. It has not only the statistics according to which the host countries have won ten of the 25 African Cups that have already taken place, but also the most balanced squad, although without top stars - head coach Claude Leroy has built a good team around Asamoah Gyan, Essien and Muntari.
In addition, the Ghanaian team is the most “Russian” team. Sheela Iliasu and Baffour Gyan represent Saturn, Hamina Draman represents Lokomotiv. And there is also Quincy, the rights to which still belong to Spartak, and Larry Kingston, whom the fans of Terek and Loko have not yet forgotten.
But the most stellar team is from Cote d'Ivoire. The “Elephants”, by all accounts, should have won the African Cup two years ago, but then the home field factor intervened, and the winner was Egypt, which the judges literally dragged to the final. Now, having gained European experience, Drogba, Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure, Eboue, Solomon Kalou, the Kone brothers, Sanogo, Dindan and others are determined to take revenge. With such a composition, the Ivory Coast team could well count on, say, reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, and not just the continental championship.
The path to the title for the “elephants” may well be blocked by the “super eagles”, that is, the Nigerian national team, for which “railwayman” Peter Odemwingie plays under the leadership of Berti Vogts, and simply the “eagles” from Mali, led by Frederic Kanoute, Diarra and Sissoko. And then there are the “indomitable lions” from Cameroon, led by Jeremy Njitap and Samuel Eto’o, and the “lions of Terranga” from Senegal. It won't be easy to survive in this zoo.
Composition of participants of the African Cup 2008. Group A: Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Morocco. Group B: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali, Benin. Group C: Egypt, Cameroon, Sudan, Zambia. Group “D”: Tunisia, Senegal, South Africa, Angola.