Sports
CAF Rules Out AFCON Postponement
The Africa Cup of Nations, due to be held from January 17 to February 8, would not be postponed because of the Ebola epidemic, an African football official said last Monday.
Hosts Morocco have called for the tournament to be pushed back because of fears that an influx of several hundred thousand supporters could spread the virus which has killed more than 4,950 people in West Africa.
But Confederation of African Football (CAF) media director Junior Binyam said there would be no postponement after meeting with Moroccan officials.
“CAF confirms the dates of the tournament,” Binyam said, adding that a second meeting was slated for November 11 at the confederation’s Cairo headquarters to “take the necessary decisions”.
Morocco now have until November 8 to officially respond to CAF, Moroccan football federation spokesman Mohamed Makrouf said.
The options are either Morocco hosting the tournament as planned, holding the tournament in another country, or cancelling it, he said.
“Any change of dates would be to the detriment of the CAF calendar, which must follow FIFA’s international calendar,” Binyam insisted.
The Ebola epidemic first impacted the Cup of Nations last August when Seychelles forfeited a qualifying tie rather than host a return match against Sierra Leone.
As the death toll mounted dramatically in Sierra Leone and Guinea, CAF barred both countries from hosting group games.
Morocco agreed to accommodate Guinea, but Sierra Leone could not secure a neutral venue and have had to play home fixtures away at opponents Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.
Not being able to perform before their supporters had an inevitable negative effect on results and Guinea and Sierra Leone are bottom of their four-team groups with two rounds left.
Should Sierra Leone lose in Ivory Coast on November 14 and Guinea in Togo a day later, both will be eliminated from the qualifying race.
The first Cup of Nations took place 57 years ago in Sudan and only featured the hosts, Ethiopia and winners Egypt, but its popularity grew rapidly with qualifying introduced ahead of the 1968 tournament.
When Cameroon 800-metre athlete Issa Hayatou was elected CAF president in 1988, he inherited an eight-team tournament, but he set about expanding it.
There were 12 teams by 1992 and the number was supposed to rise to 16 in South Africa four years later.
But strained political relations between the host nation and Nigeria over the execution of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa meant the defending champions did not compete.
The other Cup of Nations that went ahead one team short was that hosted by Angola in 2010 with Togo withdrawing after an official and a footballer were gunned down by separatists in an ambush in Angola’s Cabinda province.
Togo were crossing the border into northern Angola by road after training in Congo Brazzaville when tragedy struck, creating the darkest day in Cup of Nations history.
As the African football showcase expanded into a tournament attracting a global TV audience, so did its appeal to marketing companies.
A $5.5 million (4.4 million euros) TV and marketing rights deal per tournament before 2010 more than doubled to the current $11.7 million (9.4 million euros) price tag.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.