The 2023 edition of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), held in Cote d’Ivoire, will surely go down in the history books as one of the best that we have ever witnessed since the inception of the biennial tournament in 1957. It has been action-packed from day one, with several upsets, not to mention records set and broken.
The so-called small countries have been on a serious mission to make a strong case for themselves and prove that they deserve much more respect. From the very onset, a number of teams and individual players stole the limelight and made it clear that they were not in Ivory Coast just to add numbers or watch the ‘big guns’ do as they please. They are surely not letting anyone walk all over them. One must admit that there is massive improvement in the overall organisation of the tournament, the performance on the field, the attendance figures, officiating, broadcasting, more sponsors, more money and incentives, pretty much everything has been on another level. Compared to previous editions, everything has been of good and high-quality standard so far.
Another feather on CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe and his team’s cap for continuously doing a great job since he assumed the office at CAF. Truth be told, ever since the South African billionaire took charge of the 6th of October, Giza, Egypt-based headquarters, there’s hardly been any negative stories about the Confederation of African Football, something almost unheard of in the history of African football. The name of the biggest football body in the continent has almost always been dragged through the mud and associated with more wrongs than rights. This is one office that many believed was occupied by people who didn’t have the best interests of continental football at heart. Certainly not a good observation for the highest football office in the continent and the link between Africa and the rest of the world at FIFA. A lot of good is now happening at CAF and, just as much as we were always ready to point out the shenanigans, we definitely need the same energy to highlight the good that they’ve been doing.
