FIFA President Gianni Infantino attended the opening day of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Yaounde, sending best wishes to the 24 participating teams and holding fruitful discussions with a wide range of delegates on football’s development and its significant role in society.

Mr Infantino saw the host nation come from behind to beat Burkina Faso 2-1 in Group A before Cape Verde edged out Ethiopia 1-0.

President Infantino was able to speak about various topics related to the impact of football development with the President of Cameroon, M. Paul Biya, President of Comoros HE M.Azali Assoumani, CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe and General Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba as well as several representatives from Member Associations, football legends, government officials and leading administrators.

Source: FIFA

Julio Tavares scored the winner as Cape Verde began their Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) campaign with a surprise 1-0 victory on Sunday over Ethiopia, who played most of the game with 10 men.

The Saudi-based striker headed Cape Verde ahead in first-half stoppage time in Yaounde after Ethiopia had defender Yared Bayeh sent off with just 12 minutes gone.

Cape Verde, whose three Cup of Nations appearances at have all come since 2013, won for just the second time at the tournament and sit level on points with hosts Cameroon at the top of Group A.

Ethiopia were seen as an outside bet to perform well at this year’s CAN, after enjoying a big spurt of investment in their footballing infrastructure over recent years, cheered on by their ambitious manager Wubetu Abate.

But they faced an increasingly uphill challenge after Bayeh’s yellow card was upgraded to red following a VAR review for his tackle on Tavares as the Cape Verde player ran through on goal.

Teklemariam Shanko produced a brilliant save to claw the ball to safety after Ethiopia defender Mignot Debebe diverted a cross towards his own goal.

Cape Verde made their extra man count late in the first half as Garry Rodrigues hooked a cross back towards goal where it was nodded in from close range by Tavares.

An inspired Shanko kept Ethiopia in the game with a string of stops, but they created little in attack to trouble Cape Verde and already look set for an early exit with games to come against Cameroon and Burkina Faso.

Source: AFP

The long-awaited African football bonanza kicked off with a win for hosts Cameroon as they came back from behind to prevail over Burkina Faso, with two penalties from striker Vincent Aboubakar powering them to victory.

Burkina Faso stunned Cameroon in the first half when Gustavo Sangaré gave them the lead with a masterly finish into the left hand corner of the net in the 24th minute. Cameroon looked rattled for some time but prevailed thanks to two successful penalties by Aboubakar just before half-time, prompted by two clumsy challenges from the Burkinabé defence. The tournament hosts never looked back – dominating play in the second half.

Source: France 24

Fifty years after last hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon kick off the continental showpiece on Sunday targeting a sixth title while hoping the spectre of the coronavirus does not overshadow the tournament.

Cameroon, who play 2013 runners-up Burkina Faso in their opening Group A match at the vast new 60,000-seat Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, know expectations are high for the Indomitable Lions.

However, they will have to measure up to the likes of reigning champions Algeria, the Senegal of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah’s Egypt.

Cameroon was initially supposed to be the host nation in 2019, before being stripped of the tournament due to delays in its preparations, with Egypt taking over. The 33rd Cup of Nations was then postponed last year because of the pandemic.

The Central African country of 27 million people was therefore determined to press on with the competition amid reports last month that leading European clubs wanted it postponed again due to Covid concerns.

This time it does go ahead, and Cameroon coach Toni Conceicao is well aware of the pressure on his side.

“It’s what they put on the table when I signed my contract: at least get to the final, do everything to win it,” Conceicao told AFP.

“We feel that the people and history of Cameroon oblige us to do it. It sets the bar pretty high, but we’re convinced we can reach these goals.”

“We’ve got a big weight on our shoulders,” added the Portuguese.

African football officials have set down tough Covid-19 rules in a bid to prevent the competition becoming a super-spreader event, requiring teams to play even if just 11 players are available.

Gabon star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was forced to isolate in his hotel after testing positive on Thursday, while Senegal, Africa’s top-ranked national team, travelled to Cameroon without three members of their squad for the same reason.

Senegal then had key defender Kalidou Koulibaly test positive shortly after their arrival.

‘Scandal’

Burkina Faso captain Bertrand Traore called the testing procedures a “scandal” after at least four squad members and coach Kamou Malo tested positive in the run-up to Sunday’s opener.

“It’s a scandal, we cannot be deprived of first team players 24 hours before the match,” said Traore.

“The authorities must review the organisation.”

Covid, though, is far from the only concern in a country dealing with a conflict in the English-speaking west.

Matches in Group F, featuring Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania and Gambia, are due to be played in Limbe, a coastal city close to Mount Cameroon which is also a hotspot of separatist unrest.

Jihadist raiders also pose a problem in the north, at least beyond the city of Garoua where Salah’s Egypt and Nigeria will play group games.

It is because of the health crisis that organisers have capped crowd limits at 60 percent of capacity, or 80 percent when the hosts play.

Spectators must be vaccinated and have a negative test result, but only six percent of the adult population is inoculated.

Cameroon, though, is football mad and many fans will be desperate to attend games in a country that has only hosted the Cup of Nations once before, in 1972 when there were just eight participants.

However, the nation that gave the world the likes of Roger Milla and Samuel Eto’o — the latter now president of the Cameroonian Football Federation — no longer boasts the same level of stardust.

Comoros, Gambia debut

They have Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana and Bayern Munich striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, but the real superstars of the continent will be elsewhere.

Senegal boast not just Liverpool forward Mane but also Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye.

Holders Algeria, unbeaten in 33 competitive games, will be led by Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, while Morocco have PSG full-back Achraf Hakimi and Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, amongst others.

Nigeria, meanwhile, cross the border without Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, or Watford’s Emmanuel Dennis, whose club said they received notice of his call-up too late.

In any case this Cup of Nations is not just about the big names, as Gambia, ranked 148th in the world, and the Indian Ocean island state of the Comoros make their debuts.

Source: AFP

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe arrived in Cameroon’s commercial hub of Douala on Friday ahead of the start of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) championship in the country.

CAF Secretary General Veron Mosengo-Omba met Motsepe on arrival at the Douala International Airport ahead of Sunday’s start of the tournament.

Omba was accompanied by Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of the Littoral region of which Douala is the capital as they met Motsepe who was accompanied by his wife.

Motsepe is due to preside over the opening of the football jamboree alongside Cameroonian president Paul Biya at the Olembe Stadium in the capital Yaounde.

Host nation Cameroon will play the opener against Burkina Faso who arrived in the country early this week.

Twenty out of 24 teams to participate in the four-week tournament have already arrived the Central African nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

All 52 matches of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations which begins on Sunday in Cameroon will have the Video Assistant Referee.

The competition gets underway with hosts Cameroon taking on Burkina Faso at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde.

The final match of the 24-team competition will hold at the same venue on FFebruary 6.

The organisers, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), had previously used VAR from the quarter-finals stage of the 2019 edition in Egypt.

However, CAF has now advanced with a full use of the innovation which gained worldwide recognition by 2018.

It is expected to help improve the image of refereeing and also produce world-class match officials in Africa.

Sixty-three match officials, including women referees Salima Mukasanga (Rwanda), Carine Atemzabong (Cameroon), Fatiha Jermoumi (Morocco) and Bouchra Karboubi (Morocco), have been listed for the matches.

The list consists of 24 referees, 31 assistant referees and eight VARs, all coming from 36 countries.

The roster includes two referees from the CONCACAF as part of an inter-confederation skills exchange programme.

Source: Agency Report

The African Cup of Nations is expected to start in Cameroon on Sunday, after experiencing two delays due to the lack of proper preparations on the part of the host nation (Cameroon) and the other due to the emergence of Covid 19.

It appears the virus is still causing a lot of destructions as some top players are already reported to have tested positive for the virus. Burkina Faso for instance left three players isolating in Abu Dhabi before arriving in Yaounde to face Cameroon on Sunday.

The rise of cases amongst players and some team officials has raised calls for a need to postpone the 24-team, 52-game championship in the Central African nation. However, organisers are determined to go ahead with the game.

African soccer president Patrice Motsepe promised an “incredible competition,” despite the challenges being envisaged. One of such measures to limit the risk of the speared of infection is that the capacities in the various stadiums have been reduced. Aside this, only fully vaccinated fans with proof of negative virus tests will be allowed to attend games.

That late restriction was brought in to calm the nerves of Cameroon health authorities who feared an omicron super-spreader.

According to a global vaccination tracker from Johns Hopkins University, less than 3% of Cameroon’s population are fully vaccinated. Meaning the vast majority of Cameroonians won’t be allowed entry to see their country’s biggest sports moment if the vaccination rate has not increased by January 09.

Threats

Despite these challenges, there is a full-blown insurrection in the southwestern part of Cameroon, where English-speaking separatists opposing the Francophone government have been fighting to form a breakaway state and have started to use improvised explosive devices.

The threat to the African Cup is real. An explosion at a university near the tournament host city of Limbe and about a mile from what will be an official team-training venue injured 13 people in November. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Any health and safety plans in place?

Local officials say there is a possibility of a nighttime curfew and heavy military presence in the region.

The insecurity and the virus have led top European clubs to call into question the health and safety plans and the general wellbeing of their African players.

Defenders of the African Cup say it’s an easy target and the virus is surging in Europe and soccer leagues there are under strain from outbreaks.

“I want to tell you to respect African players, respect the African Cup of Nations, respect African fans,” former Cameroon national team player Geremi said.

Will the tournament hold?

Despite the grumbling from Europe, all indications are that Africa’s best talents will be in Cameroon.

Senegal, with Mane up front, Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy at the back, and top players throughout is one of the favorites to take the title from defending champion Algeria. Salah will captain Egypt, which is African soccer’s most successful team but hasn’t won a continental title since 2010.

Morocco, with a strong defense, was impressive in qualifying. Cameroon’s challenge, as one of African soccer’s trailblazers and a World Cup quarterfinalist 32 years ago, will be to not buckle under the home pressure.

With all the issues arising, both organizers and fans are eager to see witness the beginning and the end of the tournament at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, the capital city.

Source: Africa News

Cameroonian officials have joined hundreds of Muslims and Christians in the capital, Yaoundé, to pray for peace during the Africa Football Cup of Nations games.

Cameroon is hosting Africa’s top football championship starting Sunday, including in western regions, where anglophone separatists have vowed to disrupt the games. Police say the rebels set off a bomb Thursday in one of the towns where matches will be held, but nobody was injured.

Imam Souleymane Bouba of Yaoundé’s Tsinga Mosques prays in Arabic for peace in Cameroon. During the prayers Thursday (January 5) Bouba asked God to protect football players, fans and match officials coming to Cameroon for the African Football Cup of Nations which begins on Sunday (January 9).

Among the more than 60 Muslim and Christian clerics present was Jean Mbarga, archbishop of Yaounde. Mbarga says the prayer at the Mary Queen of the Apostles Basilica in Yaounde asked God to intercede for a peaceful AFCON in Cameroon.

Mbarga says he knows Cameroonians love football very much and will be coming out to cheer their team, the Indomitable Lions, and other African teams they cherish. He says the African Football Cup of Nations should therefore mark a new beginning for a peaceful, strong and united Cameroon. He says Muslims and Christians have jointly prayed for the safety of players, match officials and football fans who will be in Cameroon for AFCON.

Mbarga said he and the cleric who attended the prayer strongly believe that because Cameroonians love football, AFCON will remove the country from the agony it has been going through in several troubled spots.

Mbarga said the Cameroon Association for Inter-religious Dialogue organized the prayer. Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute represented President Paul Biya at the prayer. The Cameroon Association for Interreligious dialogue said at least 400 civilians, 20 ministers and senior state functionaries attended the prayer.

Cameroon is hosting the continent’s top football tournament from Sunday to February 6.

Separatists fighting to create an independent English-speaking state in the French-speaking majority country have vowed to disrupt the games. On social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, the separatists say they are in ongoing battles with Cameroon government troops. They add that Limbe and Buea are not safe zones.

Limbe and Buea are English-speaking western towns that will host group matches for teams from Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, and Tunisia.

Separatist fighters said Thursday they set off a roadside bomb in Half Mile, a neighborhood in the town of Limbe.

Cameroon military confirmed Thursday’s explosion in Limbe but called it an isolated attempt to scare football fans, players and officials. The government said no one was injured but called on civilians to collaborate with the military by reporting suspected fighters in their communities.

Biya last week called on civilians to use AFCON as an opportunity to turn a new page in the country that has suffered so many crises. The central African state started a military campaign against Boko Haram terrorism on its northern border with Nigeria in 2013.

In 2013, Cameroon said the political turmoil in neighboring Central African Republic was having a spill over on its eastern border with rebel incursions. The Cameroon military has been deployed to the eastern border with CAR since 2013.

The military is also deployed to stop rebels fighting to create an independent state in the central African state’s English-speaking western regions. The United Nations reports that more than 3,300 people have died in the conflict since 2017.

Source: VOA

Workers are applying final touches to the fan zones in Yaounde ahead of the long-awaited launch this weekend of Africa’s biggest sporting event.

Beset by months of problems and uncertainty, the month-long Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) gets under way on Sunday when host nation Cameroon play Burkina Faso.

Preparations to get the giant screens, shops, restaurants and fan space ready for thousands of supporters in the nation’s capital are definitely in last-minute mode.

“We Cameroonians love to leave everything to the last gasp,” laughs Simon Atangana, a former national player who is part of an organisation setting up the fan zones.

“Everything will of course be ready. AFCON is going to be a huge party, and the pictures will be spread around the world.”

But a familiar foe – coronavirus – is a potential fly in the ointment.

The global pandemic forced the postponement of AFCON from last year, and fears of another delay were eased only last month.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has set down tough rules in a bid to prevent AFCON becoming a super-spreader event.

Those wanting to enter the stadium must be completely vaccinated – in a country where just six percent of the adult population has been jabbed – and show a negative PCR test for the virus that is less than 72 hours old.

Venues have been limited to 60 percent of capacity, although this is being raised to 80 percent when Cameroon’s “Indomitable Lions” take the field.

The rampant spread of the Omicron variant is casting a pall over team lineups.

Gabon’s Arsenal star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the latest player to test positive and may miss his country’s Group C open match against Comoros on January 10.

“We asked CAF whether we can replace some of our players who got infected with Covid-19 but the answer is no,” said The Gambia’s coach, Tom Saintfiet.

“If this still remains to be the case, it could be a catastrophe… but according to the current rules, we are not allowed to replace anybody in the final list of 28-men squad.”

Waiting for the party

In Yaounde’s Warda Square, hawkers of flags, shirts and vuvuzela horns say they have had a slow start in trade.

“Business hasn’t taken off yet as much as I would like, but I’m optimistic,” said Arnaud Medja, 29, dressed from head to toe in Cameroon’s national colours of green, yellow and red.

“It’s just taking more time than scheduled. It’s just the Covid rules which have come along and put a dampener on things.”

The cup and the tournament’s lion mascot Mola have been going around the streets of Yaounde, backed by dancers and musicians and escorted by motorbike riders bedecked with the flags of all the competing nations.

“AFCON is going to be fun – a party,” said Laurentine, a 33-year-old cosmetics saleswoman.

“It’s going to be great to see the town move and watch everyone get out again.”

Desperate for tickets

On Wednesday, dozens of people lined up outside ticket outlets after AFCON said seats were being put on sale, although they waited in vain.

“I spent all day yesterday queuing. I went to the city hall, to the Ahidjo stadium, and now it’s the Palais des Sports,” said Karine Sunshine, 23.

“But there’s still nothing on sale. I am desperate to see the opening match.

“We’ve been waiting 50 years for this moment – that was the last time AFCON was staged in Cameroon. So I got my vaccinations, and now I am waiting a bit longer, because the Cameroonians are going to win the cup. Just look at the atmosphere there’s going to be this weekend.”

But not everyone seemed to be aware of the tournament’s anti-Covid restrictions – or even to be particularly worried about the virus.

In Yaounde’s central market, hundreds of people, none of them masked, thronged the stalls as Cameroonian and international music blasted from loudspeakers.

“Yes, of course, I will be going to the stadium,” said Abdoulay, a water seller. “You have to get vaccinated (to get in)? Oh, in that case, I won’t go.”

“There’s no corona in Cameroon, and we don’t want the vaccine here. You don’t know what it contains and vaccinated people catch the disease anyway,” he said.

Source: AFP