Reduce Nations Cup frequency
Jan 23, 2004
AFRICA’S premier sporting event, the Africa Cup of Nations, kicks off this evening with a record 16 countries participating. Tunisia is hosting the football finals for the second time in 10 years. Amazingly, in between those two tournaments, another four have been staged elsewhere!
AFRICA’S premier sporting event, the Africa Cup of Nations, kicks off this evening with a record 16 countries participating. Tunisia is hosting the football finals for the second time in 10 years. Amazingly, in between those two tournaments, another four have been staged elsewhere!
The reason Tunisia is staging the event twice in such a short time is probably because it is one of Africa’s richer countries. In between, genuine economic powerhouses South Africa and Nigeria (jointly with Ghana), alongside relatively less prosperous west Africans Mali and Burkina Faso, have played host.
Other than South Africa, east and central Africa is yet to stage the tournament, recent attempts by Kenya and Zimbabwe being abandoned at the last moment because of a lack of funds and requisite infrastructure.
It is therefore obvious that the tournament is a strain on a continent not renowned for its economic prowess. Reduced frequency, from biennial to quadrennial, would make it more affordable.
After all, all the other major sporting events — the football World Cup and European Championships, the Olympic Games, the cricket and rugby World Cups — come around after four years.
A four-year cycle would also guarantee the maximum preparation by competitors, organisers, fans and financiers that two short years cannot give.
It would also make European clubs, where more than half of Africa’s top players earn their bread, more amenable to releasing them to play for their countries. It would also help prevent the circus of combining Nations Cup qualifiers with the World Cup, as we have had to do in order to reconcile two different events in a very crowded football calendar.
The reason Tunisia is staging the event twice in such a short time is probably because it is one of Africa’s richer countries. In between, genuine economic powerhouses South Africa and Nigeria (jointly with Ghana), alongside relatively less prosperous west Africans Mali and Burkina Faso, have played host.
Other than South Africa, east and central Africa is yet to stage the tournament, recent attempts by Kenya and Zimbabwe being abandoned at the last moment because of a lack of funds and requisite infrastructure.
It is therefore obvious that the tournament is a strain on a continent not renowned for its economic prowess. Reduced frequency, from biennial to quadrennial, would make it more affordable.
After all, all the other major sporting events — the football World Cup and European Championships, the Olympic Games, the cricket and rugby World Cups — come around after four years.
A four-year cycle would also guarantee the maximum preparation by competitors, organisers, fans and financiers that two short years cannot give.
It would also make European clubs, where more than half of Africa’s top players earn their bread, more amenable to releasing them to play for their countries. It would also help prevent the circus of combining Nations Cup qualifiers with the World Cup, as we have had to do in order to reconcile two different events in a very crowded football calendar.