Africa Cup of Nations: The show must go on

Published on Saturday 9 January 2010 19:57

THE MACHINE GUN attack on the Togo national team as they travelled to Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations on Friday night must, of course, be first recognised as a personal tragedy.

For the families of the squad's assistant coach and press officer and the team's bus driver who all lost their lives. And for those players and their loved ones injured, traumatised and ultimately left unable to contemplate playing in the tournament after rebels demanding independence for the Cabinda region machine-gunned their bus shortly after it crossed into the region from the Republic of Congo. But, and it is an often overused and certainly misused word, the callous act is a genuine tragedy for the whole of Africa.

With South Africa the hosts for the continent's first World Cup finals come June, and this Africa Cup of Nations the most eagerly anticipated tournament of its kind, 2010 was being rightly billed as a special year for Africa. It was to be the time it became the epicentre of the globe's most celebrated sport, and most celebrated sporting spectacle. These events were to shift the focus from the patronising, old-colonial-style focus on the poverty, depravation and backwardness manifesting itself in brutality: problems in these developing lands that still can be traced to our developed world.

In the immediate aftermath, with Togo understandably withdrawing in a move that will create serious scheduling problems, old "First World" prejudices have inevitably surfaced. While in the host country the Confederation of African Football confirmed that the tournament would go ahead as planned, and Angolan Sports Minister Goncalves Muandumba said security for the competition would be stepped up to ensure "all the conditions necessary for the success, tranquillity and security of the people and their belongings", these pronouncements were given little credence by some British clubs with players at the tournament.

Hull City manager Phil Brown demanded the return of his Gabonese striker Daniel Cousin and Nigerian midfielder Seyi Olofinjana – "I want them home", he told the Sun – while Harry Redknapp said consideration should be given to calling "the whole thing off". Meanwhile, Gary Double, spokesman for Portsmouth, who have four players in Angola, said they should remain "only if their safety can be guaranteed". It can't be, but that is not a problem for Africa – it's a problem for a world in which terrorist acts are random and uncontrollable. Ask those who work in London Underground… or Glasgow Airport, facilities in two cities that won Olympics and Commonwealth games after they were targeted by bombers.

No one suggested the Atlanta Olympics in the US in 1996 be cancelled after two people were killed in a bomb blast at a park beaming events on a big screen. And the death of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, and a West German police officer, did not bring a premature end to the Munich Olympics of 1972. Africa is different, easier to denigrate, but in this instance that is to fail to appreciate what football means to the people of the continent.

After 14 months coaching Uganda, Bobby Williamson, Govan-born and who was as Scottish as they come in developing a fine coaching reputation with Kilmarnock and Hibernian, understands that. It is believed the Angolans have spent close on $1 billion (620 million) redeveloping stadiums for the jamboree and, judging the event purely in footballing terms, he has no doubts about its success.

"You look at the quality of player, the fact these are drawn from the top European clubs, and what you can say is that the Africa Cup of Nations is now on a par with the European Championships. It is simply the African equivalent, not a third-stringer after the World Cup and the Euros, as it was once thought," says Williamson, whose team missed out on qualification on goal difference, but have since twice lifted the prestigious CECAFA Cup, a competition for all the nations in central and east Africa. "When you have front players like Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto'o, Salomon Kalou and Fredi Kanoute, to name but a few, it isn't going to be otherwise. Africans are proud, warm people, who are incredibly passionate about their football. The ordinary Angolans will embrace the tournament, make outsiders feel welcome and make the games real occasions."

They will have to pull out all the stops to prevent the tournament being completely overshadowed by the murderous intent of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Flec), which issued a statement chillingly claiming the "operation" was "only the start of a series of targeted actions that will continue in all territory of Cabinda". The Angolan government has now been accused of not treating seriously enough concerns over possible attacks in the oil-rich region from a group that signed a ceasefire in 2006.

Once the tournament begins, which it does this evening with the hosts facing Mali – two teams Williamson's Uganda have beaten in the past year – it must be hoped on-field developments are given their place. The football should contain no little fascination or intrigue. Despite his reluctance to make predictions, Williamson agrees with most pundits that Ivory Coast – boasting the glitterati of Drogba, Kalou, Kolo and Emmanuel Eboue – must be considered favourites, though believes the prospects for their Group B rivals Ghana are as strong as a squad containing world-class midfielders such as Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari.

Williamson says Egypt, smarting from their failure to overcome Algeria in a World Cup play-off, have the perfect motivation for securing a record third straight African Nations success and believes others such as Cameroon and Nigeria have decent claims. Ahead of Friday, part of the attraction of the tournament was in viewing it as a World Cup dry run. Williamson sees some merit in that but contends, whatever the outcome, the possibilities of a first African World Cup semi-finalist (quarter-final appearances from Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002 are the continent's previous best showing) are very real, with Ivory Coast and Ghana his top tips for a top-four placing.

"You can't look through the Ivory Coast team and not see them as one of the most talented national teams around right now," he says. "And the fact the finals are in Africa must enhance their prospects. If any team shows promise, then Africa as a people will get right behind them and supply them with a real momentum."

The fact that practically all the players who will be on show in Angola in the next month are in the employ of European clubs is considered to dilute the differences that once gave the tournament a surprise, and fresh, value. Indeed, tactical discipline, once laughingly eschewed by these teams to the eye of European football watchers, might be all too constrictingly adhered to by players under the charge of European coaches for both club and now country.

"If you are talking about an African style of play, it does still exist to the extent so many of the teams play a diamond shape across the middle, and place great emphasis in the holding midfielder. There is no great width to speak of, everything comes through the middle, and the way we have set up with Uganda we've had a bit of joy counter-acting that," says Williamson, whose side have lost only two of the 14 games he has taken charge of. And he must be on to something since, for all the richly talented players the continent has produced, practically none have been wingers in the truest sense.

The other downside of top European clubs' reliance on, and huge rewarding of, African players is that club considerations could impinge on their commitment at a competition that comes smack bang in the middle of a domestic season. Already, Chelsea are expressing concerns about how best they can manage 31-year-old Drogba for the concluding stages of their Premier League and Champions League campaigns, while Eto'o said recently that European clubs paid big wages and therefore had a right to be sticky about the loss of their players on international duty.

"Maybe a bit of attitude could creep in from some players but I don't really see that as an issue," Williamson says. "These people are patriots and much of the big money they earn goes straight back to their homelands to provide for their extended families, which can be considerable. And whatever the luxurious lifestyles they may have in Europe, you can rest assured they will return to Africa, to countries that have a beauty many Westerners don't get, to live like kings among their own people. As footballers, then, they desperately want to succeed for them."