Afcon

[Mase]

The tournament runs from 21 December until 18 January.

We've only got Marmoush and Aït Nouri (bit of a piss take as he's been injured for us - but O'Reilly is far better anyway).

Liverpool will lose Salah and Rags Bryan Mbeumo, which will be great. Arsenal interestingly don't have one player that will go..

[nottsblue]

Another utter dogshit tournament. Devoid of any real quality

[stupot]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

[Mase]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

This season's surprise package, fourth-placed Sunderland will be the worst affected team by far by Afcon 2025 with seven players due to leave.

They are Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra, Mozambique full-back Reinildo, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore and DR Congo pair Arthur Masuaku and Noah Sadiki.

The majority of them are first-team regulars, with 50 Premier League appearances between them this season.

Lovely stuff

[nottsblue]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

This season's surprise package, fourth-placed Sunderland will be the worst affected team by far by Afcon 2025 with seven players due to leave.

They are Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra, Mozambique full-back Reinildo, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore and DR Congo pair Arthur Masuaku and Noah Sadiki.

The majority of them are first-team regulars, with 50 Premier League appearances between them this season.

Lovely stuff

Wouldn't surprise me if they are praying for snow and try and postpone the game

[Im_Spartacus]

Interesting to see Arsenal have no players - I think since Yaya pretty much that was the case for us also, and seems to be a philosophy Arteta has picked up from Pep about avoiding African players.

I guess Sunderland and other promoted teams have to cut their cloth accordingly, and African players' value is likely reflected in the fact they will fuck off for a month at a key time of year - I wonder what happens in the French league, as I guess that gets decimated in Jan.

It's a wierd conflict that raises questions about the motivations behind AFCON - I get that it's the financial engine for many African football associations, broadcast rights, sponsorship and host-country investments. AFCON revenue helps fund entire football ecosystems, youth development, refereeing systems, stadium maintenance and national team operations. But lets not also hide that in many countries half of that money is going straight in someone's back pocket.

But the paradox is that if Europe’s biggest clubs avoid signing african players, this means that there's less exposure / youth engagement when kids dont see 'people like us' playing for the likes of Barcelona / Real Madrid / Arsenal who have none, Bayern / Liverpool / City who have 1 notable player.

Bigger picture, for development of football, it seems to be the strategic equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot as African needs these superstars at clubs like Real, Barca etc, but I can't remember when it's ever really happened in the last 20 years the possible exceptions would be Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto'o who were genuine 1st team players, but this was 10-15 years ago

African players seem to be are disproportionately concentrated in clubs one tier below the ultra-elite, or in elite clubs that are willing to take the short-term hit for extraordinary upside (Liverpool being the only real example I guess with Mane, Keita, Salah)

[sheblue]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

This season's surprise package, fourth-placed Sunderland will be the worst affected team by far by Afcon 2025 with seven players due to leave.

They are Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra, Mozambique full-back Reinildo, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore and DR Congo pair Arthur Masuaku and Noah Sadiki.

The majority of them are first-team regulars, with 50 Premier League appearances between them this season.

Lovely stuff

Wahoooooo.....

Seriously you cant have too many African players in your squad.

[Mase]

Rags saying they won't release players until just before their countries matches, instead of the two weeks before like they're supposed to

[patrickblue]

Interesting to see Arsenal have no players - I think since Yaya pretty much that was the case for us also, and seems to be a philosophy Arteta has picked up from Pep about avoiding African players.

I guess Sunderland and other promoted teams have to cut their cloth accordingly, and African players' value is likely reflected in the fact they will fuck off for a month at a key time of year - I wonder what happens in the French league, as I guess that gets decimated in Jan.

It's a wierd conflict that raises questions about the motivations behind AFCON - I get that it's the financial engine for many African football associations, broadcast rights, sponsorship and host-country investments. AFCON revenue helps fund entire football ecosystems, youth development, refereeing systems, stadium maintenance and national team operations. But lets not also hide that in many countries half of that money is going straight in someone's back pocket.

But the paradox is that if Europe’s biggest clubs avoid signing african players, this means that there's less exposure / youth engagement when kids dont see 'people like us' playing for the likes of Barcelona / Real Madrid / Arsenal who have none, Bayern / Liverpool / City who have 1 notable player.

Bigger picture, for development of football, it seems to be the strategic equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot as African needs these superstars at clubs like Real, Barca etc, but I can't remember when it's ever really happened in the last 20 years the possible exceptions would be Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto'o who were genuine 1st team players, but this was 10-15 years ago

African players seem to be are disproportionately concentrated in clubs one tier below the ultra-elite, or in elite clubs that are willing to take the short-term hit for extraordinary upside (Liverpool being the only real example I guess with Mane, Keita, Salah)

Didn't Mahrez regularly play in AFCON?

[Im_Spartacus]

Interesting to see Arsenal have no players - I think since Yaya pretty much that was the case for us also, and seems to be a philosophy Arteta has picked up from Pep about avoiding African players.

I guess Sunderland and other promoted teams have to cut their cloth accordingly, and African players' value is likely reflected in the fact they will fuck off for a month at a key time of year - I wonder what happens in the French league, as I guess that gets decimated in Jan.

It's a wierd conflict that raises questions about the motivations behind AFCON - I get that it's the financial engine for many African football associations, broadcast rights, sponsorship and host-country investments. AFCON revenue helps fund entire football ecosystems, youth development, refereeing systems, stadium maintenance and national team operations. But lets not also hide that in many countries half of that money is going straight in someone's back pocket.

But the paradox is that if Europe’s biggest clubs avoid signing african players, this means that there's less exposure / youth engagement when kids dont see 'people like us' playing for the likes of Barcelona / Real Madrid / Arsenal who have none, Bayern / Liverpool / City who have 1 notable player.

Bigger picture, for development of football, it seems to be the strategic equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot as African needs these superstars at clubs like Real, Barca etc, but I can't remember when it's ever really happened in the last 20 years the possible exceptions would be Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto'o who were genuine 1st team players, but this was 10-15 years ago

African players seem to be are disproportionately concentrated in clubs one tier below the ultra-elite, or in elite clubs that are willing to take the short-term hit for extraordinary upside (Liverpool being the only real example I guess with Mane, Keita, Salah)

Didn't Mahrez regularly play in AFCON?

Ay good point - still the exception rather than the rule though

[BlueinBosnia]

Just had a look at the women's AFCON qualification tournament. What a joke: 16 teams in the final tournament, with 2 knock-out rounds to qualify, meaning a team needed to play a maximum of 4 games. Senegal and Malawi got through the first round due to their opposition withdrawing (both ended up qualifying), while Cameroon were seeded, so went directly into the second round. Lost both their games (1-0 and 2-1 vs. Algeria), but qualified anyway as one of the 4 highest-seeded losers of the second round.

Senegal qualified without scoring a single goal (both legs 0-0 vs. Ivory Coast - who also qualified through the same system as Cameroon - before winning on pens), and Cameroon qualified after losing every qualifying game they played.

The tournament's also being held in Morocco for the third successive time, presumably due to lack of interest from other countries in hosting it.

I'm in support of strengthening the women's game across the globe, but really a 16-team AFCON doesn't seem to be the way to go about it.

[john@staustell]

The tournament's also being held in Morocco for the third successive time, presumably due to lack of interest from other countries in hosting it.

Or possibly lack of interest from players in going to some of the less salubrious or less safe parts.

[BlueinBosnia]

The tournament's also being held in Morocco for the third successive time, presumably due to lack of interest from other countries in hosting it.

Or possibly lack of interest from players in going to some of the less salubrious or less safe parts.

I know the Western Sahara issue will massively skew data, but Morocco doesn't make it into the top 15 African nations on the current Global Peace Index.

[john@staustell]

The tournament's also being held in Morocco for the third successive time, presumably due to lack of interest from other countries in hosting it.

Or possibly lack of interest from players in going to some of the less salubrious or less safe parts.

I know the Western Sahara issue will massively skew data, but Morocco doesn't make it into the top 15 African nations on the current Global Peace Index.

Global peace index? LOL

Sounds like the sort of thing Putin's Russia might be top of

I see France is 74th and Sierra Leone 57th. I'd look at a Global Disease Index!

[s1ty m]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

We play them next Saturday.

[Nick]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

We play them next Saturday.

And NYD too, away game

[s1ty m]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

We play them next Saturday.

And NYD too, away game

Oh. Lol.

[nottsblue]

Any chance Nunes is secretly African?

[CTID Hants]

Any chance Nunes is secretly African?