We’re at that time of year again when various Premier League managers start moaning again, although that does seem like an all year round hobby at times to be fair. The reason they’re doing it this time though being that the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations is due to start next month, taking place between 19th January and 10th February between 16 nations, including the hosts South Africa. Premier League managers then no doubt set to complain about having to release the players, that they signed knowing that they might play in the competition, to play in the Cup of Nations.
This year’s tournament then, which will see the winners qualify for the 2013 Confederations Cup in June in Brazil alongside the hosts, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and er, Tahiti, taking place in South Africa after the civil war in Libya last year saw the tournament moved from that country, with South Africa and Libya swapping their respective 2017 and 2013 hosting rights. It won’t come cheap for the South African government though as they have allocated £32m to the tournament, of which £5.8m has been given to the organising committee, while the rest will go to do up the host cities and venues and in logistical costs.
Mvuzo Mbebe, chief executive officer of the local organising committee commenting to BBC Sport on how things are going along at the moment: "We are comfortable with plans that have been put into place, in terms of details and operational execution, but there's been a lot of fair criticism that people have not seen enough branding around various cities.” Which to me sounds like people are going to see a lot more advertising appearing around the place in the run-up to the tournament, of which all 32 games will be shown live on British Eurosport.
As far as people going to the matches themselves is concerned though, things could be looking up compared to the 2012 edition held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon where only 200 people witnessed the quarter-final match between Sudan and eventual champions Zambia in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Zambia this time round hoping to sell 10,000 tickets to their fans, while better accommodation and travel facilities in and to South Africa mean that the Ethiopian Football Association has requested 15,000 tickets for their supporters, while in phase one of the overall ticket sales 20,000 were sold, double the original target of the organising committee.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing though, in which there was a 20% discount offer for tickets bought before 24th November, as a large amount of fans complained that they could not find a Spar outlet from which to purchase their tickets, and that the ticket machines were also consistently offline. South African Football Association vice-president Mandla ‘Shoes’ Mazibuko pouring water on the flames though as he said: “Initially, there was a problem when the tickets were put on sale. In part, the challenges had to do with a lack of understanding and communication between the ticket selling centres and the Local Organising Committee. The problems have now been resolved and to date, I can safely say that the selling of the tickets is on track.”
Once in the stadium the fans will be watching four of the sixteen countries involved as they play in double-header group matches on the day, the countries qualified being Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Congo DR, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and of course South Africa. The surprise qualifiers there, and making their debut in the tournament being the former Portuguese islands of Cape Verde, which sit off the west coast of Senegal, the Blue Sharks causing a shock as they defeated Cameroon 3-2 on aggregate in the final qualifying round.
After losing on penalties to Zambia in the 2012 final, Cote d’Ivoire are the clear favourites this time round with the bookmakers, with the next three countries in line being Ghana, whose last win came in 1982, Nigeria, who haven’t won the tournament since 1994 and hosts South Africa. The Bafana Bafana, last winners in 1996 when hosting, having their best chance in 17 years to claim the crown again with Egypt and Senegal, alongside Cameroon, all having failed to qualify.