AFCON CAMEROON 2021: Off the pitch
Finally, it is AFCON season again!
With pomp and pageantry, bulletproof mascots and tightened military presence in an opening ceremony in Yaounde, Cameroon on the 9th of January, the main African international men’s association football competition, the TotalEnergies African Cup of Nations (AFCON) or Coupe d’Afrique des Nations (CAN) in French, officially started amidst fears and drama from, not only the host country itself, but international observers as well. The 33rd edition of the major football tournament has started, nonetheless.
COVID-19 AND EUROPEAN DRAMA.
This storied competition, managed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), has experienced significant changes over the years, right from its inception in 1957. The Competition was held every two years from 1968, but was changed to odd-numbered years to accommodate teams participating in FIFA’s World Cup matches. AFCON 2021 is being conducted in 2022 as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic and the alarming infection rate in Africa. The CAF President; Patrice Motsepe and the Cameroon Government had to postpone the event to January 2022. Cameroon was initially slated to host the competition in 2019 but they had to relinquish the responsibility and privilege to Egypt due to delays in preparations and construction of infrastructure. This led to a lot of questions being raised on the organisation abilities of Cameroon and the management body, CAF.
However, with an allocated budget of 13billion Central African CFA franc (XAF) which amounts to roughly 23 million dollars, and the construction of a grand 60,000 seats state stadium, albeit not fully completed, and renovation of five other stadiums, the Cameroon Government was and remains fixated on hosting a successful football tournament to the end. This position is reinforced with a statement from the President, Paul Biya and the CAF President that the competition will go as planned, regardless of the eyebrow raising statements issued by observers and members of international football clubs, asking for the competition to be postponed. The competition includes 24 teams from across the continent, with over 40 players from the English clubs which are in mid-season of the Premier league games.
Although FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players prohibits international football clubs from restricting their team footballers from playing in their respective national competitions, the European Club Association, and some football clubs petitioned that the AFCON games be postponed or else they will prevent their players from partaking. The reason given for this audacious position was the rising case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, making their players unsafe in such an international competition. It should be noted however, that the UEFA European Championship games were held in the United Kingdom, amidst rising cases of covid 19 infections in the country. This raises the age-old question of how well-respected AFCON is in the international football community in comparison to its European counterpart.
In response to these comments, and for the protection and the safety of the teams as well as the general audience, CAF issued new covid guidelines for the competition, stating that the capacity of the audience in the stadiums will be capped at 80% when the host country plays, and 60% when other nations play. Members of the audience are requested to be fully vaccinated and have proof of a negative virus test to gain entrance into the stadiums. Although this innovation is laudable, it begs to question its effectiveness in future football matches as Cameroon has less than 3% of its population vaccinated.
BOMB BLASTS AND THREATS
Asides Covid-19, there are more grim issues that have the potential of affecting the successful completion of the competition. Cameroon has been embroiled in a dangerous civil conflict which started over four years ago between the ‘anglophone zone’ of the country (which has declared itself as a separate nation called Ambazonia) and the Government of the largely French speaking (francophone) zone. There are documented horrific abuses conducted by both the separatist sect and the army, including killings and the destruction of property. With escalating volatile conflicts in the country, there is the general fear of the safety for the players and audience of the matches. This fear is enhanced with the location of the Limbe stadium, located in the contested 'anglophone zone', as a violence wrecked city of Buea is only 15 miles away.
Although the Government has issued statements of tightening security around the stadiums with the military, the general perception is that the separatist group will seize this opportunity to draw global attention to a less focused conflict in the country. How effective these actions taken by the Cameroonian Government are, is yet to be seen. , as the separatist sect set of a bomb blast in the city of Limbe, days before the competition kicked off.
Regardless of these uncertainties and turbulent issues, AFCON has started in Africa, with millions around the world edging to see who the winners of the 5 million dollars prize money will be. Will it be the host country that has won five times, or Egypt, the ultimate seven-times champion of the game? Only time will tell.
So grab your popcorn and let all eyes be on AFCON 2021 Cameroon!