By Samindra Kunti in Casablanca, Morocco
February 5 – In the pouring rain Morocco waltzed to a superb maiden African Nations Championship title, crushing ten-men Nigeria 4-0. Morocco’s Ayoub El Kaabi, CHAN’s top scorer with nine goals, was named player of the tournament.
February 2 – Cameroon has reportedly been given a provisional green light to stage the region’s flagship event, the African Cup of Nations, in 2019.
January 29 – Hosts Morocco and surprise package Sudan progressed to the last four of the African Nations Championship. Nigeria and Libya are the other semi-finalists.
January 26 – Angola and Congo-Brazzaville booked the last spots for the quarterfinals of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) as the tournament’s knockout stages begin this weekend.
January 23 – Liberia’s George Weah, the former world footballer of the year who made the remarkable step of switching to politics and going all the way to becoming president of his country, was officially sworn into power on Monday and promised a crackdown on systematic corruption.
January 19 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS has lifted a five-year ban imposed on Senegalese club US Ouakam. In July 2017 eight people were killed by a stampede at the game US Ouakam – Stade de Mbour during Senegal’s cup final.
January 17 – Swaziland is in shock and all football in the country has been suspended after Premier League of Swaziland chairman Victor Gamedze (pictured) was gunned down at a petrol station in a targeted assassination on Sunday evening.
By Samindra Kunti
January 15 – Hosts Morocco opened the fifth edition of the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) with a thumping win against neighbours Mauritania, putting forward their credentials as a renewed force in African football both on the pitch and as hosts of major tournaments.
January 12 – Referees in African international matches are to be paid directly by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) instead of national associations in the wake of Ghanaian official Joseph Lamptey’s (pictured) life ban for match-fixing.
January 11 – The Confederation of African football CAF has sent an inspection team to Cameroon to assess the preparations for the 2019 African Cup of Nations. In the past CAF president Ahmad Ahmad has repeatedly cast doubt over Cameroon’s credentials to stage the tournament.
January 10 – A FIFA delegation is expected in Mali this week to organise the process of holding fresh elections after a normalisation committee was established last month to run the day-to-day affairs of the Malian Football Association (Femafoot).
January 8 – Zimbabwe’s, under the oversight of new Sports Minister Raymond Kazembe, is working to put the sport’s finances on a more solid footing, with an extraordinary general meeting of ZIFA having been arranged and a new sponsorship for key teams in the offing. Meanwhile it has emerged ZIFA President Philip Chiyangwa earned $72,000 in 2017 from renting out his offices to the association.
January 5 – Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah won the 2017 CAF African Football Player of the Year Award. Egypt’s Hector Cuper was named Coach of the Year and for a third time Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala won the Women’s Player of the Year award.
January 5 – The failure of the Ivory Coast to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia continues to have a knock-on effect off the field with a raft of clubs calling for an extraordinary general meeting of the national federation and the removal its president Augustin Sidy Diallo.
By Paul Nicholson
January 4 – The Liberian FA (LFA) and its president Musa Bility have hit back saying that the pre-Christmas visit to their country by a FIFA team of financial investigators was in fact a compliance audit and not a forensic audit tasked with investigating financial corruption in Liberian football.