African Cup of Nations 2021 (played in 2022) | Final: Senegal v Egypt, 7 PM UK time

Noot

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Again I'll mention more than 150 players at the AFCON play in Europe's top 5 leagues.

To say the level is low is not true. It may not be as good as the Euros or even the COPA America, but this notion that the AFCON is some farmers championship needs to stop.

Once the knockout stages are reached and the weaker teams get knocked out of the group stage. The majority of the players, 90% would be from the top 5 leagues in Europe therefore making it of a good level no ?

You yourself just said that in European club football 95% of the worlds best players play there. So the majority of the AFCON players (especially once you reach the round of 16 play their club football in Europe).

For example yesterday, Hannibal played against a midfield of Bissouma, Haidara and Samassekou, which is probably the toughest opponent he's ever come up against in his career till now and it was in the AFCON.
The level of this tournament so far has been staggeringly low. Saying "but a few really great players are from Africa" doesn't change anything.
 

Noot

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Zwayer
"He is a FIFA referee, and is ranked as a UEFA elite category "
"accepted a bribe of 300 euros to avoid critical scenes"

I'm tempted to ask whether these double standards are ignorance or racism.
Zwayer being allowed to keep refereeing is also a joke, but he's got nothing to do with this thread as he's not at AFCON.
 

the_cliff

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The level of this tournament so far has been staggeringly low. Saying "but a few really great players are from Africa" doesn't change anything.
Again I'll mention more than 150 players at the AFCON play in Europe's top 5 leagues.

So if it is staggeringly low what does that say about European club football when the majority of players play there ?
 

Rasendori

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Right... Another day. The second match for these teams playing today. Let's hope the shenanigans of yesterday are behind the tournament.


Cape Verde have a really good team. They were this close to qualifying ahead of Nigeria for the final stage of WC qualifying games (more on this near the end of this tournament). They play a quick tempo game, so it'll be interesting to see how they fair against Burkina Faso. Their center forward, Tavares, is really good at running behind and holding up play too.

Think Cameroon will easily win against Ethiopia. 1-0 of course.
He would've been a good opponent for Edmond Tapsoba, a central defender for Burkina Faso. I'm a big fan of him having watched him extensively for Vitória de Guimarães. Unfortunately, covid ruled him out of the first game, and he won't be in the running for this encounter. I'm hoping Burkina Faso qualify so I can see him in action in the knockout rounds. Whilst I don't think this will happen per se, but I'd personally like to see Nasser Djiga in the starting berth tonight. Another Burkina Faso centre back, he's a player who played well at AFCON U20.
 

do.ob

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Zwayer being allowed to keep refereeing is also a joke, but he's got nothing to do with this thread as he's not at AFCON.
The poster I was replying to seemed to be trying to make the point that using a referee that was once suspected made the AFCON a joke. So I thought it relevant that UEFA and FIFA are using a ref that has actually been convicted by a sports court for his role in match fixing, in order to point out double standards.
 

OG J0E

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Cameroon still the only team to both score and concede a goal so far :lol:
 

WeePat

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Let's go Ethiopia. It's slowed down a bit in the last 10 mins but it's been a very watchable game this.
 

rooney2009

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I'm enjoying this tournament so far
A lot of very close games with a lot of skilful players
defending has been very good and you can actually tackle in this games
Well done to Afcon and Cameroon to not listening to all the western managers and people that tried to get this tournament cancelled
 

Patchbeard

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Again I'll mention more than 150 players at the AFCON play in Europe's top 5 leagues.

So if it is staggeringly low what does that say about European club football when the majority of players play there ?
I love the AFCON but saying that having 150 players in the top 5 European leagues is proof of quality doesn't really hold much weight when a large amount of those are not first choice players at their clubs - just look at Senegal's squad, 21 of their players play France/England/Italy/Spain/Germany but literally only Mendy, Gomis, Koulibaly, Gueye, Kouyate, Mane & Sarr are first choice at their clubs.

The new (since the last time I watched it) tournament structure with 24 teams certainly doesn't help for an entertaining group stage (at least not the first round of games), as the extra 8 teams certainly dilutes the quality with there's less big games in the group stages, and teams are happy to just not lose in the opening fixture knowing that then they only need a win afterwards to almost certainly qualify. It hasn't been as bad as some people are making out and there has been a surprising number of very good goals considering how few goals there's been, but I do wish it was still just 16 nations and none of this 3rd place team qualifying for the knock-outs.
 

WeePat

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Cameroon are blowing Ethiopia away here. Great goal.
 

WeePat

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This could get ugly if Ethiopia aren't careful.
 

Rasendori

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Edmond Tapsoba is in the starting berth. Looking forward to see his battle with Tavares.
 

Annihilate Now!

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That header from the number 10 to set up that chance was outrageous - probably break my neck if I tried that.
 

Rasendori

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The warning signs were there in the opening 15 minutes with Sangare, and Toure receiving the ball on the half turn and driving forward. Around 10 mins later, Cape Verde had overloaded the left side positioning Andrade who forms part of the pivot to be caught higher up the pitch. A passing sequence which took him out the game leaving aches of space, and leading to a great opportunity for Burkina Faso. (First Half)
 

Noot

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Again I'll mention more than 150 players at the AFCON play in Europe's top 5 leagues.

So if it is staggeringly low what does that say about European club football when the majority of players play there ?
Almost all of them are squad players, at mid-table/lower clubs, or both. So it really says nothing at all about European club football.

You're being deliberately obtuse to suggest that a competition that has a lot of top-flight players in it must be a good tournament when almost every game so far has been horrendous.
 

Lay

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Only Cameroon know how to score more than a goal so far.
 

Wibble

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Zwayer
"He is a FIFA referee, and is ranked as a UEFA elite category "
"accepted a bribe of 300 euros to avoid critical scenes"

I'm tempted to ask whether these double standards are ignorance or racism.
Just for clarity could you confirm that you are talking about UEFA/FIFA being racist for allowing a white referee to continue after taking a bribe and not commenting that @We need an rvn made a racist post. I didn't read it that way but someone else took it that way and I wanted to clear it up. Thanks.

On the point I'm not sure how him continuing was racist at all but there you go.
 
Last edited:

do.ob

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Just for clarity could you confirm that you are talking about UEFA/FIFA being racist for allowing a white referee to continue after taking a bribe and not commenting that @We need an rvn made a racist post. I didn't read it that way but someone else took it that way and I wanted to clear it up. Thanks.

On the point I'm not sure how him continuing was racist at all but there you go.
He wrote: "And this incident is exactly why the CAF is not taking seriously and is classed as a second rank international competition"

After which someone linked an incident where a referee had to call players back in LaLiga and I thought it relevant to mention the fact that UEFA (who I assume is deemed as holding first rank competitions) is using someone, who has been convicted (as opposed to suspected).
I then wondered why such double standards against the African competition exist, whether it's just because of ignorance of the equivalents on the other side or whether it's a certain bias.
 

Wibble

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He wrote: "And this incident is exactly why the CAF is not taking seriously and is classed as a second rank international competition"

After which someone linked an incident where a referee had to call players back in LaLiga and I thought it relevant to mention the fact that UEFA (who I assume is deemed as holding first rank competitions) is using someone, who has been convicted (as opposed to suspected).
I then wondered why such double standards against the African competition exist, whether it's just because of ignorance of the equivalents on the other side or whether it's a certain bias.
Still not clear what you are saying. If you are implying that @We need an rvn was being racist in any way I think you need to retract because we frown on throwing such accusations around with no basis in the post in question.
 

The Original

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Still not clear what you are saying. If you are implying that @We need an rvn was being racist in any way I think you need to retract because we frown on throwing such accusations around with no basis in the post in question.
Without commenting on the racism thing, how can you not be clear on what he is saying?

It's as simple as, there is a double standard where the African tournament has been called rubbish in comparison to European football, for a specific incident that has also occured in European football.

He is alleging that the double standard there is due to racist ways of perceiving Africa.

Whether right or wrong, his point is clear.

As far as i'm concerned anyone whose sole contribution to this thread is to call the competiton rubbish should be threadbanned, as it's derailing the thread and ruining the experience for the rest of us.
 

Wibble

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Without commenting on the racism thing, how can you not be clear on what he is saying?

It's as simple as, there is a double standard where the African tournament has been called rubbish in comparison to European football, for a specific incident that has also occured in European football.

He is alleging that the double standard there is due to racist ways of perceiving Africa.

Whether right or wrong, his point is clear.
I asked to confirm if he was calling another poster racist and that wasn't clear from the response.
 

Wibble

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I don't care who you were asking. You're not making sense in your approach to this issue and i've had my say.
I'm not entering the general discussion about the African Cup of Nations but asking a specific question that doesn't involve you, so please keep your nose out of it.
 

The Original

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I'm not entering the general discussion about the African Cup of Nations but asking a specific question that doesn't involve you, so please keep your nose out of it.
Being staff i'd expect that you understand how a forum works. You make a comment on the thread, you get replied to on the thread.

Nobody cares how you feel about it.

You want to have a personal discussion, use the pm function.

Just as with your 'specific question' your approach continues to defy logic.
 

Wibble

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Being staff i'd expect that you understand how a forum works. You make a comment on the thread, you get replied to on the thread.

Nobody cares how you feel about it.

You want to have a personal discussion, use the pm function.

Just as with your 'specific question' your approach continues to defy logic.
What part of please keep your nose out is hard to understand? Last time I checked the modmins didn't include you so stop trying to moderate the forum please.
 

The Original

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What part of please keep your nose out is hard to understand? Last time I checked the modmins didn't include you so stop trying to moderate the forum please.
Coming back to reply to this after you personally issued a warning on my previous post is quite shameless.