Sorry,but every 2 years does not make sense, since most of the Africans make their living and are PAID by clubs in Europe. It should be every 4 years, and then a winter break should be scheduled to coincide with it. Doing that every 4 years would be more acceptable.

In fact, I like my proposal so much that I think the same should apply to the Asian and Gold Cups as well.

I’m Ipanema Bob.

i remember during the 2006 ACN, harry rednap was complaining of how the tournament is useless and the next year, infact exactly after the tournament he rushed to buy african player the same players that were nartured by this so called useless tournament.

As for blatter, the fact that he has adamantly refused to include the ACN tournament on the Fifa Year Calendar shows how much little respect he has for it. then how jump to decide when he thinks it should be held. in fact on the opening game of ACN 2008 i saw him sit next to the Ghanian president and when Ghana scored the president clapped and as for Blatter he just sat with this gloomy face as if he’d lost his wife, not even a smile in appreciation.

But Isa Hayatou assured him, that as long as he’s still the president of CAF, the tournament will always be played in Jan/Feb.

As you pointed out, the only solution to having the ACN be played in June, is to host it in the Southern hemisphere (i.e. where Summer and Winter months are inverted, compared to the Northern part of the world, i.e. including Europe). Unfortunately, South Africa seems to be the only country with structures and facilities capable of hosting such an event, which effectively precludes that solution from being adopted anytime soon.

As for Blatter’s never-ending quest of “improving the beautiful game”, I won’t even go there. This is the same man which, at some point or another, suggested the have the World Cup held every two years…

If this change is made than there would be no point in hosting intl tournaments at all, since clubs seem to have higher priority than national football.

But the whole point is only for short-term gain as football has become an ‘instant success necessity’ sport. So managers can underpay thier african players, use them for one or two seasons & if they get fucked over by their ACN experiences in June-July to the detriment of the rest of their careers then the clubs can always look for the ‘next’ big thing to come out of Africa which (lets face it) happens about once every week.

Here’s another thought. I’ve always felt that international football is more important than club football. It goes back to when i was a kid & all i watched was Maradona screwing over the English & the Italians in his awesome World Cup displays, when i had to look up Cameroon on the world map coz i thought Roger Milla was a really cool football player (even for a 38 year old). International football is how you REALLY develop local talent in different countries. Competitions like Copa America, Asian Cup (3 cheers for Iraq again btw…) & the ACN are important showcases of how good the countries are getting in developing this great sport on their own turf.

Personally, i hate it when managers (& i ain’t excluding Wenger here) belittle international football & think club football is the be-all & end-all. Seriously, if India were any fucking good at this sport i’d give up watching club football altogether & just watch my own team mix it up with the rest of the world.

Ahmed, i think you hit the nail on the head with this article, except if i were writing it i’d fill it with expletives for Harry Redknapp & Sepp Blatter & every screwy bureaucrat that screws up proper devlopment of the sport with their constant whinging & blatantly populist comments that put their own narrow self-interests above all else.

I would just love it if the CAF just gave a big middle finger to FIFA & carried on as usual. If the rich clubs get a migraine like this every 2 years then tough.