The big African Football shindig kicks of this weekend, and as usual we’ll provide a bare minimum, low information, low interest guide.
Despite our poor effort, it is actually a football tournament worth following, as some of the world’s best players fly back for each edition every two years. Since most of the players come from the top leagues it’s worth following instead of complaining about it’s interruption to regular programming in Europe.
Ebola has caused Morocco to give up hosting rights, with Equatorial Guinea picking up the slack.
Here’s the teams playing below…
SO, WHO SHOULD WIN?
With players like Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony, Gervinho and to a lesser extent Kolo Toure at their disposal Ivory Coast have the biggest group of names at the tournament. But performances at the World Cup prove that the biggest names don’t always lead to biggest prize.
IF THAT’S THE CASE, WHO DO THE GURGLER THINK WILL WIN?
Well first we’ll go through our Group selections:
GROUP A – BURKINA FASO
GROUP B – ZAMBIA
GROUP C – ALGERIA
GROUP D – IVORY COAST
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With the first and second teams going through from each group and latter stages going through to the final in the usual style, we’re predicting an Algeria v Burkina Faso final. With the Algerians taking the big prize.
ANY OTHER BIG NAMES?
– Yousef Mulumbu (WBA) DR CONGO
– Asoamah Gyan (ex Sunderland) GHANA
– Yannick Bolasie (Crystal Palace) DR CONGO
– Mame Biram Diouf (Stoke) SENEGAL
– Papiss Cisse (Newcastle) SENEGAL
– Cheikhou Kouyate (West Ham) SENEGAL
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DR CONGO and CONGO?
Well we aren’t any great philosopher who knows maps, but here’s the best info we could grab from Wikipedia.
DR CONGO
Full Name: Democratic Republic of Congo
Former Name: Zaire
Location: Central Africa
Population: 77 Million
Former Rulers: Belgium
GDP per Capita: US$416
CONGO
Full name: Republic of Congo
Former Name: French Congo
Location: Western Central Africa
Population: 4.6 Million
Former Rulers: France
GDP per Capita: US$3,400
