The African Cup of Nations Thread

[bobby brows]

As I’m sure you are all as excited for the African Cup of Nations as I am such is the lack of football on free television these days I’d thought I’d start a thread for everything CAN which starts on Saturday. I’ve included a little preview to get everyone up to speed on one of the most exciting football tournaments should conditions allow it.

I’ll try and update it as often as I can chinners style with fixtures and news etc. feel free to add anything I will inevitably miss:

[center]
2013 African Cup of Nations
Host: South Africa[/center]

South Africa fresh off hosting the first African World Cup while be our host for tournament having beaten Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Botswana and joint bids from Gabon/Equatorial Guinea (who actually hosted last years) & Benin/Central Africa Republic for the honour. This is the second time they have hosted the tournament (1996 the previous tournament which they won) due to Libya being stripped due to what’s happening in their country.

16 teams have qualified of which 8 will advance to the quarter finals

The groups have been drawn as:

Group A

South Africa (host)
Angola
Morocco
Cape Verde

Group B

Ghana
Mali
Niger
Congo DR

Group C

Zambia (holders)
Nigeria
Burkina Faso
Ethiopia

Group D

Coté d’Ivoire
Tunisia
Algeria
Togo

Where will the games be played?

It’s interesting to note that the organisers have followed the route of the Olympics and will have back to back games for the first two rounds of group games meaning that there will be theoretically 4 sets of opposing supporters in the stadium which should hopefully make for a better atmosphere than the World Cup. With the exception of the travel from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth the organisers have learnt from the travel issues of the World Cup and scheduled games closer together by having all but one of the grounds in the north of the country.

[center]The Stadiums[/center]

[center]Johannesburg

The National Stadium
Capacity 94,700[/center]

Johannesburg will host the opening game (South Africa v Cape Verde & Angola v Morocco) and the final.

[center]Durban

Moses Mabhida Stadium*
Capacity 54,000[/center]

Durban will host most of Group A’s game, Congo DR v Mali in Group B, a quarter final (Group A winner v Group B runner up) and the first semi final.

*Moses Mabhida was a formal general secretary of the South African Communist Party.

[center]Port Elizabeth

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium*
Capacity 48,000[/center]

Port Elizabeth will host all bar one of the Group B games (because the final round of games must kick off simultaneously), Carpe Verde v Angola (Group A), a Quarter Final match (Group B winners v Group A runners up) and the third place play off (is this really necessary?)

*Nelson Mandela once met David Beckham

[center]Nelspruit

Mbombela Stadium*
Capacity 41,000[/center]

Mbombela Stadium will host the group C games, Togo v Tunisia (Group D), a Quarter Final (Group C winner v Group D runner up) and the second semi final.

*named after the tax payers who had to pay to complete the stadium in time for the world cup (this may not be true)

[center]Rustenberg

Royal Bafokeng Stadium*
Capacity: 42,000[/center]

The home of the team with the best name in world football, the Platinum Stars, will host the Group D games, Ethiopia v Nigeria (Group C) and a Quarter Final (Group D winner v Group C runner up)

*named after the Royal Bafokeng nation who manage the stadium

How can you watch the African Cup of Nations?

[center][/center]

The new ITV logo is almost as bad as their FA Cup coverage.

Live coverage of the 2013 African Cup of Nations on TV will be shown on ITV4 and British Eurosport in the UK. ITV4 will broadcast 20 live African Cup on Nations games including 12 group matches, 4 Quarter Finals, both Semi Finals, the third-place play off and the African Cup of Nations Final.

Matt Smith will present the coverage with an interesting (in fairness to ITV) panel of Fabrica Muamba, Efan Ekoku and Quinton Fortune (they have to be able to mention United somehow in the tournament).

British Eurosport will broadcast all 32 games live from the tournament including the African Cup of Nations Final On TV (assuming that it does not interfere with Alpine Skiing).
In Europe the games will be shown on Eurosport (except France where it will be on Canal+ and in the USA they will be shown on ESPN (nice commitment to football there America). It will be shown in the Middle East on Al Jazeera.

Weekends Games:

Saturday 19th January

South Africa v Cape Verde 16:00pm ko on ITV4 & Eurosport
Angola v Morocco 19:09pm ko on Eurosport

Sunday 20th January

Ghana v DR Congo 15:00pm ko on Eurosport
Mali v Niger 18:00pm ko on ITV4 & Eurosport.

I'll hopefully try and preview the teams a little later on. There's plenty of research needed for that part :-)

[Goataldo]

I was gonna start a thread on this, and having just seen yours - well let's just say it would be an understatement to say I'm glad I didn't.

Good work!

[bobby brows]

I was gonna start a thread on this, and having just seen yours - well let's just say it would be an understatement to say I'm glad I didn't.

Good work!

Cheers mate. I'm clearly off work today.

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

I'm just looking at Group A and I'm sure we've had a South African and a Moroccan wear the shirt?

My mate phoned me with Colin Viljoen

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

I was gonna start a thread on this, and having just seen yours - well let's just say it would be an understatement to say I'm glad I didn't.

Good work!

Cheers mate. I'm clearly off work today.

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

I'm just looking at Group A and I'm sure we've had a South African and a Moroccan wear the shirt?

My mate phoned me with Colin Viljoen

Ever?

Benarbia- Algeria
Ade - Togo

All I've got.

[london blue 2]

Trabelsi

[Goataldo]

I was gonna start a thread on this, and having just seen yours - well let's just say it would be an understatement to say I'm glad I didn't.

Good work!

Cheers mate. I'm clearly off work today.

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

I'm just looking at Group A and I'm sure we've had a South African and a Moroccan wear the shirt?

My mate phoned me with Colin Viljoen

Ever?

Benarbia- Algeria
Ade - Togo

All I've got.

Was Karim Kerkar (no idea how to spell that) Algerian? Did he ever play for us, or was he bought to cook Ali B's meals?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Did we have a Mettomo or something like that?

[bobby brows]

I was gonna start a thread on this, and having just seen yours - well let's just say it would be an understatement to say I'm glad I didn't.

Good work!

Cheers mate. I'm clearly off work today.

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

I'm just looking at Group A and I'm sure we've had a South African and a Moroccan wear the shirt?

My mate phoned me with Colin Viljoen

Ever?

Benarbia- Algeria
Ade - Togo

All I've got.

Was Karim Kerkar (no idea how to spell that) Algerian? Did he ever play for us, or was he bought to cook Ali B's meals?

he was algerian and according to wiki made no professional appearances.

he will for ever have claim to fame after his name was read out at one of the pre-season friendlies as Kenny Carr.

I've had a good scan through the list of City players and there are surprisingly few African players I can find.

Two African born players who played for european nations;

Gelson Fernades was born in the Cape Verde Islands before moving to Switzerland at 5.
Kiki Musampa was born in Kinshasa, Zaire and turned out for Holland. I loved Kiki Musampa

[Goataldo]

Did we have a Mettomo or something like that?

Ah Lucien. I loved that guy. Gutted when we sold him. Was immense along side Weikens in the 3-1 derby where Ratboy fed the Goat. Cameroonian he was (and probably still is).

[Dameerto]

I like that Port Elizabeth stadium. I want one. But with the zebra striped seating pattern of that other stadium.

[bobby brows]

Did we have a Mettomo or something like that?

Ah Lucien. I loved that guy. Gutted when we sold him. Was immense along side Weikens in the 3-1 derby where Ratboy fed the Goat. Cameroonian he was (and probably still is).

he was unreal for us as part of that Keegan title winning side but he went to the ACN, played once and Keegan fell out with him forever.

[Ted Hughes]

Did we have a Mettomo or something like that?

Ah Lucien. I loved that guy. Gutted when we sold him. Was immense along side Weikens in the 3-1 derby where Ratboy fed the Goat. Cameroonian he was (and probably still is).

he was unreal for us as part of that Keegan title winning side but he went to the ACN, played once and Keegan fell out with him forever.

Never got my head round that. Our best defender at the time imo. A lot of stuff KK did was fishy imo but of course the fact that Willie McKay was often involved was pure coincidence.

Nice work with the all the info by the way.

[Goataldo]

Did we have a Mettomo or something like that?

Ah Lucien. I loved that guy. Gutted when we sold him. Was immense along side Weikens in the 3-1 derby where Ratboy fed the Goat. Cameroonian he was (and probably still is).

he was unreal for us as part of that Keegan title winning side but he went to the ACN, played once and Keegan fell out with him forever.

Never got my head round that. Our best defender at the time imo. A lot of stuff KK did was fishy imo but of course the fact that Willie McKay was often involved was pure coincidence.

Nice work with the all the info by the way.

Totally agree. Can't understand why he never illicits the same level of wistful 'one that got away' stuff as van Buyten, for instance.

[Cocacolajojo1]

Cheers for your effort BB. Ambitious and thorough as always.

[Im_Spartacus]

Was interesting in Cape Verde a few weeks before Xmas, heard a big presentation on how they are hoping that their first ever qualification will put them on the tourist map, and are actually building a road in anticipation of this

And yes, I mean A single solitary road, the place really is that backwards.

Hope they do well, lovely place I'd recommend to anyone

[bobby brows]

Was interesting in Cape Verde a few weeks before Xmas, heard a big presentation on how they are hoping that their first ever qualification will put them on the tourist map, and are actually building a road in anticipation of this

And yes, I mean A single solitary road, the place really is that backwards.

Hope they do well, lovely place I'd recommend to anyone

ha, there will be a Starbucks and a McDonalds on that road by the end of the first week

[I Just Blue Myself]

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

Djamel Abdoun for Algeria

I remember him because he took the number 10 shirt after Sibierski left. Only had one sub appearance I think.

[bobby brows]

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

Djamel Abdoun for Algeria

I remember him because he took the number 10 shirt after Sibierski left. Only had one sub appearance I think.

very good effort.

i remember him, played in a cup tie against Scunny when Fowler scored a hat-trick (i think) he had a few nice touches...

...and never played again.

[Ted Hughes]

Question for everyone. can you name a City player who has played for any of the qualified nations?

Djamel Abdoun for Algeria

I remember him because he took the number 10 shirt after Sibierski left. Only had one sub appearance I think.

very good effort.

i remember him, played in a cup tie against Scunny when Fowler scored a hat-trick (i think) he had a few nice touches...

...and never played again.

Djamel Belmadi was Algerian.

[Im_Spartacus]

The whitleys were Zambian weren't they?