WeeklySA_AdminAFCON 2023: FINISH BETTER THAN THE START
By Ali Mphaki
South Africans are collectively holding their breath as a not-so-inspiring Bafana Bafana goes out in search of continental football glory at the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (“AFCON”) Côte d’Ivoire 2023.
The historic event, featuring 24 of the continent’s 54 nations now in its 34th edition, holds the promise of going into annals of history as one of the toughest in memory, what with the staggering R140-million going to the winner of this bienial African footballing spectacle.
The 40 percent prize money increase undoubtedly sets the stage for a scintillating tournament, with fans guaranteed all the thrills, frills and spills which comes with a showpiece of such magnitude.
From tomorrow (Saturday) all football-loving Africans will be glued to their TV sets as they follow the tournament with keen interest while rooting for their respective countries.
Safa.com reports that the first day in Côte d’Ivoire (Friday) seemed to go off well for Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and his men as they settled into their new home, the CAN Village in Korhogo, ahead of the start of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Bafana Bafana share their surroundings with the three other teams in their group – Namibia, Mali and Tunisia.
Situated along the main road, the village is a mere 10 minutes for the airport and the training grounds, which makes its location an ideal spot.
The long travel and the delays at both OR Tambo International Airport and in Abidjan saw the team only getting to bed about 02h00 in the early hours of the morning, South Africa time, and due to the small domestic flight between the capital and Korhogo, most of the luggage only arrived at about 13h00 on Friday.
The team was officially welcomed by the Confederation of African Football at the 34th edition of the AFCON, a tournament that Côte d’Ivoire will be hosting for the first time since 1984. The General Coordinator welcomed Bafana Bafana officially and handed over the plaque to captain Ronwen Williams as an induction into the tournament.
Training at Lycee Modern de Korhogo, which is the training facility assigned to team South Africa, boasted all the amenities needed to prepare for the AFCON and players like Williams, Themba Zwane and Mothobi Mvala were back on the pitch pushing towards their next goal, to be in the line-up when the team play their first game against Mali in a few days time.
“This pitch is wonderful. It’s really good when we have all we need to prepare and these grounds are very good for training,” said Broos after their first session. The AFCON officially starts Saturday and the South African senior men’s national team will play their first match against Mali on Tuesday 16 January 2024.
With renumeration issues put aside following the signing of an MOU between the Bafana players and Safa last Sunday,coach Hugo Broos charges have no excuse but to deliver.
With three games to play before the knockout stages of the tournament, Bafana could steal a leaf from Argentina’s exploits at the recent Fifa World Cup where they started on a loss but went down to win the Qatar showpiece.
Its not how you start but how you finish.
