EQUATOTRIAL GUINEA: THE REDEEMER AND DISGRACE TO AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS.

The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has been the prestigious pride of Africa football. This is because the AFCON is the only tournament organised by Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) that has large media coverage and patronage. Even this thirtieth edition which was refused by Morocco as the host nation and later saved by Equatorial Guinea at the latter part still had massive attention and patronage.

Morocco refused to host the tournament because of the outbreak of deadly Ebola disease in some West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Morocco announced their refusal as the host of the Nations Cup just about three months to the start of the tournament. This became a big blow to CAF, sponsors, and lovers of the competition. When this happened, many countries including Ghana and Nigeria where given the bid to host the 30^th edition of the competition but all of them refused just because of the Ebola outbreak.

Then Equatorial Guinea from nowhere came to save the situation by accepting to host the competition for the second time in three years. It was barely three months to the start of the tournament when they accepted the bid. People even admonished CAF to extend the period for them to prepare well for the competition but all things been equal, even though preparation was not all that at its best as compared to other tournaments, they really did well to prepare and host the tournament within three months.

They received applause and gratitude from CAF and football fans not until 5^th February, 2015 when they met the Black Stars of Ghana at the semi-final stage of the competition. The Black Stars were leading by three goals to nothing just about eight minutes to the end of the game. Thus, the fans of the host nation became anxious and out of their anxiety, they started throwing bottles at the Ghanaian fans and onto the pitch. This primitive behaviour from the Equatorial Guinean fans resulted in temporary holdup of the game for about thirty minutes. British Broadcast Cooperation (BBC) and other broadcast cooperation all over the world reported negatively about what happened.

Oh! What a shame to Equatorial Guinea and Africa football.