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Meet the African coaches heading to Qatar World Cup

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The World Cup holding in Qatar in November will throw up an interesting history as there will be four African coaches leading their nations to the Mundial.

This will be a departure from past World Cups where African teams are often tutored by foreign coaches who are seen as superior to local coaches.

But in Qatar 2022, out of the five African countries that will fly the continent’s flag at the world soccer fiesta, four of them will be coached by homegrown gaffes.

Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia will represent the continent but apart from Morocco, the other four will have local coaches in their dugouts.

Cameroon

Not many gave former defender, Rigobert Song, a chance to lead Cameroon to the World Cup, especially after the Indomitable Lions lost 0-1 at home to Algeria in the first leg of the final qualifiers.

But the four times African champions pulled the chestnut out of the fire in the second leg in Blida by defeating their host 2-1.

Song who was only appointed after the AFCON im February, is one of only the third African players to have played in four FIFA World Cups (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2010), along with teammates Samuel Eto’o and Jacques Songo’o.

The 45 year-old led Cameroon to two Africa Cup of Nations triumph in 2000 and 2002 as captain of the squad.

Ghana

Though he was born in Germany to Ghanaian parents, Otto Addo is another local coach who will lead an African team to the Mundial.

The former Bramfelder SV, Hannover 96, Dortmund and Mainz 05 defender was appointed to take over the Black Stars after their disappointing outing at the 2022 AFCON where they were bundled out by debutant Comoros.

Addo set to work, assembling a bunch of hungry players led by Arsenal midfielder, Thomas Partey, and the team displayed such resilience by pipping the Super Eagles of Nigeria over to legs to pick the World Cup ticket.

The 46-year-old has thus become the first Ghanaian footballer to qualify for the World Cup both as a player and as a coach.

Senegal

Senegal coach and former midfield maestro, Aliou Cissé, no longer needs long introductions when it comes to African football.

After being in charge of the talented Senegalese team for over seven years, Cissé led the team to conquer Africa at the last AFCON in Cameroon in February, beating Egypt via penalties in the final.

The continental title was the first for the West African nation after many years of asking, including the pain of losing the 2019 final to a Ryad Mahrez inspired Algeria.

During his player days, Cissé was a midfield lynchpin for French clubs like PSG and Lille. He also played for English clubs Portsmouth and Birmingham in the premiership.

He captained Senegal to a famous 1-0 victory over France at the 1998 World Cup hosted by the European nation.

Tunisia

Tunisian coach, Jalel Kadri, has become the most popular man in his country after successfully leading the North African country to Qatar 2022.

The 50-year-old has a proven track record as his international managerial career has taken him to Saudi Arabia where he coached Ansar Al Madina club.

He also had a stint in Lebanon and was the head coach of Libya’s Al-Ahly Tripoli, before returning home to coach JS Kairouan in the Tunisian league, before he was appointed head coach of the Carthage Eagles.

Kadri is now tasked with leading the Eagles as far as possible at the World Cup in Qatar.

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NFF withdraws Eagles from Afcon match with Libya over shoddy treatment

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The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has decided to pull out the Super Eagles from the 2025 Africa Nations Cup (Afcon) against Libya which was scheduled for Tuesday, October 15.

The decision stemmed from the shoddy and hostile treatment meted out on the Nigerian contingent by the Libyan authorities.

According to the NFF, in a statement on Monday, the Libyans subjected the Nigerian contingent to a hostage situation as they were locked up at the Al Abraq International Airport in Libya for over 12 hours after they arrived on Sunday, unable to reach their hotel in Benghazi, which is three hours away.

Explaining the chaotic situation, the NFF said the plane conveying the team had earlier been diverted, leaving the players and officials stranded without any assistance from the Libyan Football Federation, which failed to provide transportation.

“The Nigerian delegation for Tuesday’s 2025 AFCON qualifier against Libya is still at Al Abraq Airport, 12 hours after landing,” the NFF said.

“The chartered ValueJet aircraft was, strangely and in a dangerous manner, diverted to the small airport just as the pilot was completing his approach to Benghazi Airport,” the NFF stated.

The NFF added that the fatigued and frustrated players have now resolved not to play the match and in support of the players’ decision, is currently arranging for the team to fly back to Nigeria, effectively pulling them out of the fixture.

“Players have resolved not to play the match any longer, and NFF officials are making plans to fly the team back home,” the statement concluded.

Captain of the Super Eagles, William Troost-Ekong, also announced that the team will boycott the match against Libya.

Troost-Ekong’s who made the announcement via X in a series of tweets on Monday morning, expressed disappointment over the unfair treatment meted out to the Nigerian team in Libya.

“12+ hours in an abandoned airport in Lybia after our plane was diverted whilst descending. Lybian government rescinded our approved landing in Benghazi with no reason. They’ve locked the airport gates and left us without phone connection, food or drink. All to play mind games,” Troost-Ekong wrote.

“I’ve experienced stuff before playing away in Africa but this is disgraceful behaviour. Even the Tunisian Pilot who thankfully managed to navigate the last minute change to an airport not fit for our plane to land had never seen something like this before.

“Upon arrival he tried to find a nearby airport to rest with his crew to be denied at every hotel again under Government instruction. He could sleep there but NO NIGERIAN crew members allowed. They have returned to now sleep on the plane which is parked up.

At this point we have called for our Nigerian Government to intervene and rescue us. As the captain together with the team we have decided that we will NOT play this game. CAF should look at the report and what is happening here. Even if they decide to allow.

This kind of behaviour, let them have the points. We will not accept to travel anywhere by road here even with security it’s not safe. We can only imagine what the hotel or food would be like given to us IF we continued.

We respect ourselves and respect our opponents when they are our guests in Nigeria. Mistakes happen but these things on purpose have nothing to do with int. football.

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AFCON Qualifiers: Comoros shock Tunisia at home, Nigeria scrape 1-0 win over Libya

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The qualifiers for the 2025 AFCON in Morocco threw up one of the most surprising results of the rounds when tiny Comoros Island proved there are no more minnows in football as they shocked Tunisia at home in a 1-0 defeat on Friday to end a run of 16 consecutive home victories in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers by the Carthage Eagles.

Comoros, a tiny island nation off the south-east coast of Africa, have a habit of causing upsets; they did the same thing by beating Ghana to reach the second round at the 2022 AFCON for the first time in their history.

Despite that, the Comorans were given little chance of succeeding away to Tunisia, a former AFCON champions and one of Africa’s football giants who are ranked fifth in Africa— 82 places above Comoros in the world.

But the islanders had something up their sleeves as French second-tier league forward Rafiki Said scored midway through the second half in Rades to lift Comoros to second in Group A, one point behind Tunisia halfway through the campaign to set up an exciting second leg on Tuesday in Abidjan, the Ivorian commercial capital due to a lack of an international-standard stadium in Moroni, the capital of Comoros.

In other matches, fans of the Nigerian Super Eagles had to endure 85 anxious minutes in Uyo against Libya before Lazio midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru fired the winning goal past Murad al Woheshi.

The Mediterranean Knights had employed the now famous ‘dark arts’ in thwarting the star-studded Eagles team which had the likes of Atlanta star, Ademola Lookman, Leverkusen forward, Victor Boniface, Nantes’ Moses Simon, Fulham duo of Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey, William Troost-Ekong, Ola Aina of Nottingham Forest and other top stars, but could not break down the determined North Africans until Dele-Bashiru’s inspired moment.

The win takes the three-time AFCON champions to the top of Group D with seven points ahead of Benin with six, Rwanda two and Libya one.

Elsewhere, Premier League stars Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Bryan Mbeumo Brentford were on song for Egypt and Cameroon, while South Africa hammered Congo 5-0.

Record seven-time champions, Egypt, had to dig deep to see off stubborn resistance from Mauritania in Cairo until Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’ Hassan netted 69 minutes into the Group C clash.

Salah then put the outcome beyond doubt with a second goal 10 minutes later to maintain the perfect record of the Pharaohs after three rounds.

Egypt sit on top of the group with nine points, leaving the trio of Cape Verde, Botswana and Mauritania, all with three points, battling to claim the second qualifying place for the 2025 finals in Morocco.

Mbeumo was on fire as he netted just before half-time to put Cameroon ahead of Kenya, who were route 4-1 in Yaounde with Vincent Aboubakar, Martin Hongla and Christian Bassogog the other scorers.

The victory lifted Cameroon to the top of Group J with seven points, while Zimbabwe has five, Kenya four and Namibia are pointless.

The Bafana Bafana recorded one of its biggest wins hammered Congo for five with Mamelodi Sundowns striker, Teboho Mokoena bagging a brace.

Further goals from Bathusi Aubaas, who stretched the lead to 3-0 by half-time, Lyle Foster and substitute Iqraam Rayners completed the rout of a poor Congolese side.

Algeria also pulled off an impressive comeback win against Togo, as they won 5-1 after falling behind early in the match. Riyad Mahrez and his compatriots showed relentlessness with Said Benrahma stealing the show with his brace.

Elsewhere, Ghana wasted glaring scoring chances in their encounter against Sudan which ended 0-0 stalemate, further putting serious pressure on the coach Otto Addo tutored side who are now under immense pressure as they remain third on two points because of the result.

In other matches, DR Congo defeated Tanzania 1-0 while Botswana recorded a surprise victory with the same scoreline over Cape Verde, Burkina Faso also impressed in their clash against Burundi, beating the country 4-1 at the Alassane Ouattara Ebimpe Olympic Stadium, with Dango Outtara going all out to score a brace in the fixture.

Former African Footballer of the Year Sadio Mane scored for Senegal and Chelsea star Nicolas Jackson completed a 4-0 Group L rout of Malawi, who had goalkeeper Brighton Munthali sent off after 16 minutes in Dakar.

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