Following a rather unconvincing performances by World Cup bound African giants at the African Cup of Nations, the Confederation of African Football has proposed that a special tournament be held in May for the six African countries that have qualified for the World Cup, to help them be well prepared for the tournament, officials have said.
The competition is to serve as a preparatory ground for the six countries in order to assess their strengths and weaknesses before the competition and this emerged after a special meeting organized on the sidelines of the AFCON tournament in Angola, a meeting attended by all six Presidents of the countries going to the World Cup.
Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Cameroon will represent Africa at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Except South Africa, the rest are at the AFCON tournament and despite most having progressed to the Last eight, the continental mother-body has expressed its dissatisfaction in the competitiveness of the teams, five months before the World Cup.
Africa's best performance at the World Cup has been a quarter-final berth reached by Cameroon and Senegal in 19990 and 2006 respectively and the continent is seeking to enhance its performance by using the hosting opportunity.
According to Suleimanou Habuba, CAF Director of Communications, the meeting also strategized on how to mobilize supporters across the continent in order to bring out the best in them. Kwesi Nyantakyi, President of Ghana FA told media representatives that the two proposals by CAF were laudable but the countries had noted that the practical aspect would be difficult to implement.
He said putting the competition in May will be a difficult assignment for the nations because all the six have booked a series of friendly matches ahead of the World Cup.
The countries are said to have told CAF that they have signed contracts with several countries to play friendlies with them and they are committed to fulfill their parts of the agreement.
Failure to play such friendlies in favor of a CAF organized competition will be a breach of the contract by the African countries.
On the issue of the mobilization of supporters to South Africa, the six, according to Habuba told CAF that it will be an expensive venture into consideration the cost of air fares, movement of supporters around the match venues as well as the cost of match tickets for the fans.
The biggest obstacle to the proposals was that they pose a lot of financial difficulties to the countries.
instead, Africa's representatives at the World Cup proposed to CAF to financially support the participating teams since that will enhance their preparations for the competition.
CAF did not give any specific response to their concerns, but promised to revert to them with a solid answer within the next two months.
