January 19 – Organisers of the Africa Cup of Nations have sought to play down complaints about sub-standard facilities but have admitted the tournament, which got under way at the weekend, may not be of the highest standard.
Equatorial Guinea, one of the continent’s smallest countries with extremes of widespread poverty and extravagant affluence from its oil business, stepped in as hosts after Morocco were stripped of the right to stage the tournament when they requested a postponement until June because of fears over the spread of Ebola.
Two teams changed hotels shortly after arrival in the city of Bata; Congo because many of their staff were not allocated rooms and Burkina Faso because they found they were sharing with the media. Tunisia, meanwhile, spent their first night without any electricity.
Congo coach Claude Le Roy was also angered that his side were stuck on a sweltering bus en route to their opening match against the host nation, taking 45 minutes for a journey that usually takes a third of that time.
“The Confederation of African Football has to protect teams when they are travelling to the stadium…It makes me sad because none of my players have ever participated in a Nations Cup before and they were expecting something of a celebration. But since they arrived it has been chaos,” said Le Roy. “They are asking themselves: ‘is this what the Nations Cup is about?'”
There are also fears that newly laid pitches in Ebebiyin and Mongomo, which would normally take a month to bed down, will break up.
Organisers say they are doing the best they can within a tight time frame. “This Nations Cup will not be a classic,” conceded African Football Confederation secretary-general Hicham el Amrani. “In normal circumstances there would be four years to prepare for the tournament but this time we’ve had just 50 days.”
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