Tournament in Ivory Coast: Africa Cup – draw through, the clubs’ fears remain

The groups for the Africa Cup, which begins in January, were drawn on Thursday. European clubs fear the tournament because of the long absence of their African professionals.

Sébastien Haller’s fun in the football stadium is limited at the moment. The star striker from Borussia Dortmund is in a real slump in form – when the black and yellow fight for points, the Ivorian striker usually watches from the substitutes’ bench.

On Thursday (October 12, 2023), the 29-year-old looked spellbound on the pitch to Abidjan, regardless of his current worries. The preliminary round groups of the Africa Cup were drawn in the largest metropolis in the Ivory Coast.

Fear of the rainy season – tournament moved to the winter months

Haller’s team will face Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria as the host country. And when the tournament kicks off on January 13th, Africa’s fans will not be able to get enough of the continent’s stars for four weeks, who will do everything they can to win the Cup for their country.

The tournament was originally scheduled to take place in the summer months of 2023 – but due to the expected rainy season, the cup was postponed to January 2024. The well-known complaints from European clubs, who then have to do without their African stars for several weeks in the middle of the season, were obligatory.

Players on the road for weeks

The opening game of the competition will take place on Saturday, January 13, 2024, exactly the weekend on which the Bundesliga starts again after a short winter break. With the final taking place on February 11th, a player who goes far with his national team could miss up to five league games. This applies to match days 17 (12.1. – 14.1.) to 21 (9.2. – 11.2.).

Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy, ​​Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface or Silas (also Stuttgart), Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Bayern Munich) and Haller, some of the Bundesliga’s current top scorers, could be affected.

Ivory Coast – constant in a troubled region

Given the many political unrest in the region, it is worth taking a look at the host country. After all, the Ivory Coast borders directly on Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, among others, where the political situation is confusing due to the influence of Islamist terrorism and after military coups.

Ivory Coast, on the other hand, is now considered stable. The country at the western tip of the Gulf of Guinea has experienced an immense economic boom in recent years. The world’s leading cocoa producer has one of the most dynamic economies on the African continent, despite a nearly decade-long civil war that rocked the country in the 2000s.

World’s largest cocoa producer

Thanks to numerous resources such as cocoa, coffee, cashew nuts, petroleum and other mineral resources as well as large construction projects, this was achieved Côte d’Ivoire, to overcome the consequences of the civil war and to stimulate the economy again. But spatial and social inequalities, the political mood, the insecurity in the Sahel caused by Islamist terrorist groups and disagreements with neighboring countries naturally also weaken Côte d’Ivoire’s development potential.

This makes the Africa Cup all the more important for the country – by far the largest sporting event on the continent, which is now held with 24 teams. Favorites like the Ivory Coast (with Haller and Wilfried Zaha), defending champions Senegal (with Sadio Mané) and Algeria will have to compete with smaller players on the continent like Mauritania, Tanzania or Guinea-Bissau.