Key events
U-turn on Afcon as tournament reverts to two-year cycle
The Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will revert to being held every two years after the continent’s ruling body reversed its decision taken last year to move to a four-year cycle.
The African Football Confederation (Caf) said in a statement that it had: “Unanimously decided that the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will return to taking place every two years.”
Caf said part of the reasoning for performing a U-turn on the decision was the length of time it would take for Afcon’s replacement competition, the Africa Nations League Pan-African Competition, to become financially viable.
“We were also concerned by the several years required before the proposed new Africa Nations League Pan-African competition, (which was supposed to be identical to the current Afcon and take place every two years), could make the substantial financial and football development contributions for African Football and Caf competitions to be globally competitive and self-supporting,” Caf president Patrice Motsepe said in the statement.
Motsepe added that the decision was also taken in the interests “of African players employed by football clubs outside Africa”. That may prove contentious with their clubs looking at losing key players every two years as opposed to four.
Next year’s tournament is being co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and CAF said the following three would take place in 2028, 2031 and 2033.
“The forthcoming Fifa World Cup will take place in 2030 and in accordance with the Fida tradition, the final tournament of the Afcon and other confederations national team competitions may not take place during the year of the Fifa World Cup,” said Motsepe, explaining the three-year gap between the 2028 edition and the scheduled 2031 tournament. AFP
Manchester City’s hopes of avoiding the ‘punishment round’ of the Women’s Champions League took a blow last night. Tara Elimbi Gilbert’s late effort handed City their third consecutive draw of the league phase and the English champions now probably need to wins on each of the last three matchdays to avoid the knockout phase play-offs in February.
“Annoying is not the right word but it’s a little bit a feeling of ‘argh’,” said City manager Andrée Jeglertz, post-match “We deserved more, I think, but that’s how it is in the Champions League. When you dominate games and you don’t score, the opponent will take their chances and that’s what they did.”
Read Tom Garry’s full report from the Joie Stadium:
Preamble
After a week of Carabao Cup action, we are counting down to the weekend football action.
Last night saw the last of this round of matches as Everton beat a poor Newcastle side to move into the quarter-finals, crucially without Jack Grealish. The England international was dropped for what the club described as a ‘breach of club discipline’, with David Moyes later saying he supported the decision without offering further details. Interestingly, Everton travel to Newcastle for Monday night football, whether Grealish will travel for that one will surely gather a lot of attention.
Away from the drama on Merseyside, is the drama at Old Trafford. Last Friday we were treated to Michael Carrick’s six-minute monologue after which his Manchester United side crumbled at home to Bournemouth. Remarkably Carrick is still in situ and this weekend United are on the road for a nostalgia-tinged trip to Chelsea, a fixture that was once key to the top four battle, and kind of still is but now it’s just a bit sadder.
We are due a slate of pre-match Premier League press conferences, which we’ll be keeping you across, plus looking back at last night’s Women’s Champions League action and more. Your football weekend starts here, (I like to imagine that bit with quite a Sky Sports News heading to the ad break style delivery).
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