In a few hours, the Olembé stadium, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, will host the first meeting of the 33 rd edition of the CAN (African Cup of Nations) 2022 with the Cameroon-Burkina Faso match on the program. Tunisia will have to play their first match, on January 12, 2022, against Mali.
The CAN ball opens today. The entire Black Continent, and well beyond, no doubt, will therefore live from January 9 to February 6, 2022, at the time of this thirty-third edition of a competition that could not be held, as everyone knows, in 2021. Due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This same pandemic could still play a bad turn in this year 2022 to many fans of African football. The CAF (African Football Confederation) decided to hold on and won. Other factors also almost played a bad turn in Cameroon, host of the competitions, and which spent no less than 760 million euros (about 2.5 billion dinars) in sports infrastructure and in the development of the territory to host CAN 2022. Like the more or less admitted pressure from European clubs who were not keen to let their African stars go.
Recruiters will be there
Some clubs have found the Omicron to be a great ally. This is what the European Club Association (ECA) wrote in black and white, in mid-December 2021, in a letter to FIFA (International Football Federation): “The clubs will not be able to release the players for the tournament ”because of“ the absence of medical and operational protocol adapted for the CAN”. Forgetting that the pandemic was also progressing rapidly in Europe.
The shepherd’s response to the shepherdess, that of former England international Ian Wright: “We played our Euro through ten countries in the midst of a pandemic and there was no problem at all. But Cameroon, only one country which hosts a tournament, it suddenly becomes a problem ”. Comments reported by our colleague 20 minutes in an article, published on January 7, 2022, the title of which tells the story of the bad faith of European clubs: “Does football in Europe despise the African Nations Cup?”
Six groups in total
Let’s move on. Twenty-four teams are therefore competing from January 9 to February 6, 2022, for an increasingly popular Trophy: African football is an opportunity for recruiters around the world, in particular, to see good heels evolve.
And already the amateurs have ticked in the calendar, the matches which arouse great interest, and this, in the six groups of the 1 st round of the competition: A, B, C, D, E and F. And, in this regard, we could say that we take the same ones and we start over. Because the teams which have the most chance to win the title or to find themselves in the outposts are known.
There is obviously Algeria, which won the last edition of the CAN and which has just lifted the Arab trophy in Qatar. But, there is also Cameroon, the host country, which will be encouraged by an audience believed to be large. There are Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, and Nigeria. But beware of surprises that could come from Mali, Burkina Faso, or the Ivory Coast.
A little oxygen for traders
The competition takes place in six stadiums including two in the capital, Yaoundé: Olembé and Ahmed Ahidjo. The other four stadiums are located in the following cities: Douala (Japoma), Garoua (Adjia), Bafoussam (Kouekoj), and Limbe (Limbe). Stadiums with a capacity ranging from 60,000 to 20,000 spectators.
Stadiums that will be a permanent center of animation: Cameroonian traders are hoping that this 33 rd edition of the CAN will bring a little oxygen to their business. Many stalls have already supplied their stalls with wooden statues, handmade masks, pearl necklaces, and other products. CAN again attract traders from neighboring countries.
And to come back to the meetings, it is undoubtedly good to recall that Tunisia, which is in group F, will play its first match against Mali, on Wednesday, January 12, 2021, at the Limbe stadium, the second, on Sunday, January 16. 2022, at the same stadium, against Mauritania, and will be opposed for its last and third match in its group, on Thursday, January 20, 2022, still in the same stadium, in the Gambia.
