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 30th 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’s withdrawal
with three months to kick-off became a big blow to CAF, sponsors, and lovers of
the competition. When this happened, many countries including Ghana, Nigeria and
South Africa where asked to host but all refused just because of the deadly
disease. Then Equatorial Guinea from nowhere came to save the situation by
accepting to host the competition for the second time in three years. People
even admonished CAF to extend the period for them to prepare well for the
competition but all things been equal, they really did well to prepare and host
the tournament within three months.
They received applauds from
CAF and football fans not until 5th February, 2015 when they met the
Black Stars of Ghana at the semi-final stage. The Black Stars were leading by
three goals to nil when the fans of the host nation started to misbehave. This
primitive behaviour from the Equatorial Guinean fans resulted in temporary
holdup of the game for about thirty minutes. BBC and other networks all over
the world reported negatively about what happened.
Oh! What a shame to Equatorial
Guinea and Africa football.
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