Afcon 2022

[Buzzo]

Be interesting to see how our players go.

Sadio and Naby play Monday. Mo on Tuesday.

Fixtures and other info is here.

[BobTheCharmer]

What a quality tournament.

Apparently teams have to play even if they only have 11 players and no keepers. Or they forfeit 2-0.

What a farce.

[Exiled_red]

What a quality tournament.

Apparently teams have to play even if they only have 11 players and no keepers. Or they forfeit 2-0.

What a farce.

To be fair I don't really see what they can do, the should have cancelled the tournament IMO . The question is what happens if they can't put 11 players out? Do they extend the tournament as you imagine they would have to if they postpone games or teams just have to forfeit to keep things on schedule

[maxwellbaxter]

What a quality tournament.

Apparently teams have to play even if they only have 11 players and no keepers. Or they forfeit 2-0.

What a farce.

[BobTheCharmer]

Bit harsh.

Perhaps they should make it a 5 aside from here on in.

[Norbs]

To be fair I don't really see what they can do, the should have cancelled the tournament IMO . The question is what happens if they can't put 11 players out? Do they extend the tournament as you imagine they would have to if they postpone games or teams just have to forfeit to keep things on schedule

You answered your own question in the first sentence ER, should've been postponed

[Exiled_red]

You answered your own question in the first sentence ER, should've been postponed

I've said for a while that it shouldn't have gone ahead now, it's a stupid, risky decision IMO. But having taken that decision there needs to be a plan for dealing with Covid cases, not allowing postponements is key to keeping the tournament on schedule, yes it undermines the integrity of the tournament but otherwise it could go on for months which is problematic for everyone.

[Norbs]

I've said for a while that it shouldn't have gone ahead now, it's a stupid, risky decision IMO. But having taken that decision there needs to be a plan for dealing with Covid cases, not allowing postponements is key to keeping the tournament on schedule, yes it undermines the integrity of the tournament but otherwise it could go on for months which is problematic for everyone.

Yeah, I'm totally with you but Covid doesn't allow for planning. In fairness, most of these athletes are asymptommatic so it's not as if they can remove themselves prior to feeling ill. I dislike all international football, especially mid-season though so I'm biased against it. The federations only care about generating income so they're never going to do what's right by the clubs

What they should've done is required teams to be there 10 days before the start of the tournament and for them to quarantine but that would've gone down rather badly with European clubs who would've lost their players before Xmas

It's a completely inevitable ****fest

[Exiled_red]

Like you I'm not a fan of international football, it's nothing against ACN in particular but holding any international tournament when case numbers are as they are seems crazy.

We are seeing cases in the PL skyrocket at the moment, a load of PL games have been postponed, but there is the best part of 5 months to fit those postponed games in. We are seeing with the FA Cup where there is only 2-3 weeks between rounds that there is no space for rescheduling so the forfeit situation has arisen. In tournament football it is going to be worse, players who get it are likely to miss at least 2 maybe 3 matches. I'd be interested to know what the ans are for sides if there are out breaks in a squad at the ACN, it seems likely that as they are living in a hotel as well as at training together if someone gets it it will likely rip through the squad, isolating players for a week in a timely fashion will be difficult and getting Covid positive players training facilities to use in isolation so that they can play after isolating seems like it would be difficult. I suspect the reality is any side with more than a couple of cases will be going out of the tournament fairly quickly. The winner will likely be whichever of the better sides can avoid Covid best.

[Mark79]

To be fair I don't really see what they can do, the should have cancelled the tournament IMO . The question is what happens if they can't put 11 players out? Do they extend the tournament as you imagine they would have to if they postpone games or teams just have to forfeit to keep things on schedule

What a quality tournament.

Apparently teams have to play even if they only have 11 players and no keepers. Or they forfeit 2-0.

What a farce.

Edit - unless the question is what happens is neither side can put out an 11?

[Paul12]

Edit - unless the question is what happens is neither side can put out an 11?

They both lose 2-0? It becomes a game of chicken/bluff then.

To be fair, the organisers are between a rock and a hard place because they not unreasoanbly need the money these tournaments generate, particularly in these Covid-hit days.

[Exiled_red]

I was reading it as if they had more than 11 players available but refused to play they forfeit 2-0. I was wondering if there was some flexibility if they had fewer than 11 players? But that may have been my misreading.

Also I don't think a 2-0 forfeit is that much of a deterrent, if you won your first two games in the group stage, the circumstances might make it more convenient to take a 2-0 forfeit than risk playing

[ChesterDave]

I only clicked today that Matip is not in the Cameroon squad. Has he retired from international footy or does he just not get selected?

[Mark79]

I only clicked today that Matip is not in the Cameroon squad. Has he retired from international footy or does he just not get selected?

He hasn’t played for Cameroon since before he joined us. Think he officially retired in 2017 after rejecting their Afcon call up that year.

[Norbs]

Who was it who served a ban for refusing to play for their national side? They retired but their federation refused to accept it. I thought that was Matip