KAMPALA
It all started with a two-year-old boy dying in December 2013 in the village of Meliandou, Guéckédou, Guinea after a mysterious fever. The boy’s mother, sister, and grandmother later succumbed to the same. But it was not until March 18, 2014 that Guinean health officials announced the outbreak of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever “which strikes like lightning.” It was later confirmed to be Ebola.
At the time, it could hardly be envisaged that the scourge would go on to claim slightly over 20,000 human lives as of January 8 this year, with most deaths registered in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone.
The plague was to see Guinea and Sierra Leone play their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying home matches from Casablanca (for Guinea) and Lubumbashi, Yaounde and Abidjan (for Sierra Leone). But the wider sporting victim was Caf and Morocco, the latter – after being denied an option of postponing the event to a later date - withdrawing from hosting the tournament citing Ebola spread fears, and the former – left in a spot of bother.
Given that Morocco’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, their fears were justified, yet their decision left Issa Hayatou’s Caf between a rock and a hard place as they had to get a new host within just two weeks.
Ghana turned down the offer to host, so did Angola, South Africa and Nigeria among others. The situation was a gloomy as Cecafa’s. Cecafa had at the time failed to find a host of the 2014 edition after Ethiopia had pulled out. As it stands, it’s in history books that Cecafa failed to organize the 2014 event because of lack of a host. Travesty. But Hayatou, the Caf boss, is much shrewder than his Cecafa friends, and his purse of course deeper, let alone his better connections with fellow uncompromising acquaintance, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
A quick flight to Equatorial Guinea saw Hayatou and Obiang strike out a deal and that ended the tragedy that would have been had Africa’s football governing body failed to successfully organize this year’s event.
Joy platform The spirits have been dim after such energy draining events to the extent that there has been little - off the pitch – to inspire or build up the excitement ahead of the tournament. But on the pitch, the qualifiers provided a sign that action in the four host cities will lift that cloud.
Countries like coach Christian Gourcuff’s Algeria, the number one ranked team in Africa who impressed in Brazil, are odds-on favourites to win their second Afcon title since 1990. They are oozing class all over the pitch with majority of the players in their early and mid 20s.
Porto’s 24-year-old forward Yacine Brahimi, who helped Algeria to five wins out of six in the qualifiers, should lead the service delivery in a group that includes Senegal, Ghana and South Africa.
Cameroon are another rejuvenated side having discarded the old guard for mostly new, young blood.
The Indomitable Lions have a new air about them having qualified unbeaten. And with 22-year-old Porto striker Vincent Aboubakar – widely seen as legendary Samuel Eto’o replacement (he scored four goals in the qualifiers) - leading from the front, coach Volker Finke’s outfit should play a big part in lifting the Afcon gloom.
Yassine Chikhaoui-inspired Tunisia, Papiss Demba Cisse’s Senegal, Heldon Ramos’s Cape Verde, Yaya Toure’s Ivory Coast and Andile Jali’s South Africa also have enough quality to make this a memorable tournament.
Indomitable lions Cameroon are another rejuvenated side having discarded the old guard for mostly new, young blood. The Indomitable Lions have a new air about them having qualified unbeaten.
This unrelenting foolery; only football people can pull it off