{"id":339345,"date":"2017-07-26T06:54:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T06:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=339345"},"modified":"2017-07-26T06:54:38","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T06:54:38","slug":"expanded-nations-cup-will-not-reduce-quality-of-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/expanded-nations-cup-will-not-reduce-quality-of-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanded Nations Cup will not &#8216;reduce quality&#8217; of play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Africa Cup of Nations will not suffer in quality after its expansion to 24 teams, says a top Confederation of African Football (Caf) official.<\/p>\n<p>Amaju Pinnick believes the African game can only benefit, even if the tournament may suffer early on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the beginning, you will see some problems but later it will start building up to the quality people know it for,&#8221; the Nigerian told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Trust me &#8211; it is not going to reduce the quality.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Caf chose to both expand the Nations Cup &#8211; by an additional eight teams &#8211; and\u00a0move its timing\u00a0from January\/February to June\/July.<\/p>\n<aside><\/aside>\n<p>Pinnick, who presides over Caf&#8217;s Nations Cup Organising Committee, believes African football will be &#8216;redefined&#8217; as a result of the changes, citing benefits with regard to business, infrastructure and the sport itself.<\/p>\n<p>He says African companies are excited about the changes, that African players will become more prized and that more countries will benefit from new and\/or reconstructed stadiums.<\/p>\n<p>Concerns over the quality of football aside, there are also questions about how many African countries have the capacity to actually stage a 24-team Nations Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The Caf executive committee member believes &#8217;10-12&#8242; countries could host on their own right now, but he also introduced the concept of &#8216;regionalising.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are trying to encourage co-hosting and regionalising,&#8221; said the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president in a wide-ranging interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Nigeria and Ghana were to put up a bid for example, I would also advocate that they accommodate (neighbours) Togo and Benin. Nobody is pushing that for now but I am just giving an example of the possibility.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the next Nations Cup hosts &#8211; Cameroon &#8211; must deliver a finals, in 2019, for 24 teams despite having bid for a 16-team event.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the country\u00a0denied reports\u00a0it was behind schedule but Pinnick is not unduly concerned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Cameroon is a major footballing nation and I believe they are going to be able to do it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They are very eager and excited.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, the format for qualifying for the 2019 Nations Cup &#8211; which has already started &#8211; needs to be changed.<\/p>\n<p>Caf will meet in Morocco later this week to begin talks on how that process will change, with the next qualifiers set for next March.<\/p>\n<p>The switch of timing, meanwhile, has been broadly welcomed &#8211; with both\u00a0African players and agents\u00a0set to benefit given the Nations Cup will no longer clash with the middle of a European season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You will now starting seeing big money for African players &#8211; massive transfers because they are now in line with the footballer calendar,&#8221; said Pinnick.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, any footballer in a team that qualifies for Nations Cups either side of a World Cup could find himself playing three extended seasons in a row.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think there is any major concern,&#8221; argued Pinnick.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I called nine Nigeria internationals (to check) and they said it was not an issue. I also asked my marketing agent who called some big African names in the Premier League and they said the same thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The argument of adverse weather &#8211; whether being too host in the North, too rainy in the West or too cold the Southern Africa &#8211; was regularly used by the previous Caf regime, under Issa Hayatou, as a reason to not move the timing.<\/p>\n<p>Pinnick believes infrastructural improvements can help solve some of the issues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you have a world-class pitch, you won&#8217;t bother about rain because within minutes it will drain away,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Pinnick, who says many companies have backed the expansion, does not believe the Nations Cup will increase in size again &#8211; with any potential increase likely to feature over half the teams on the continent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anything can happen but I want to believe that this is where it should end.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Africa Cup of Nations will not suffer in quality after its expansion to 24 teams, says a top Confederation of African Football (Caf) official. Amaju Pinnick believes the African game can only benefit, even if the tournament may suffer early on. &#8220;At the beginning, you will see some problems but later it will start [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2791,199,396],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Expanded Nations Cup will not &#039;reduce quality&#039; of play - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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