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| Algeria players celebrate the penalty goal by striker Aymen Mahious as CHAN 2023 hosts beat Libya 1-0 in the opening match of the tournament. |
The 2023 edition of the African Nations Championship, better known as CHAN, started as scheduled on Friday 13 January in front of a strong crowd at the Nelson Mandela Stadium with hosts Algeria overcoming Libya by 1-0.
The new state-of-the-art stadium in the Algiers suburb of
Baraki was opened exactly ahead of CHAN 2023, as the key venue for the
tournament.
Subsequent matches offered a fair share of entertainment,
with Saturday's Ivory Coast v Senegal providing a display of West Africa power
until the Elephants emerged 1-0 victorious. But it was the six-goal thriller
yesterday, between Mali and Angola, which offered a lot more as the two
countries shared the spoils.
However, the tournament could not avoid any controversy in
its early stages when Morocco failed to pitch against Sudan on Monday evening
in Constantine. It boils down to political rivalry between neighbours Algeria
and Morocco over the issue of Western Sahara and other matters which have
nothing to do with football.
It was a sorry sight for football when Sudan walked onto the
pitch at Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium for 6pm (RSA time) kickoff, only to end up to
in in vain, together with the match officials, as defending Morocco failed to
emerge.
The whole spectacle, until the referee blew the whistle to
end the no-show at 6.15pm, was unnecessary despite the laws of the game as the
organisers had known by that stage that Morocco did not travel for the
tournament and they were nowhere near the stadium.
The fixture should have been declared a non-contest without
Sudan even having to walk onto the pitch.
Even in the aftermath of the letdown, the cold war between
the two giants of African football giants persisted, with Morocco blaming
Algeria for denying them the permission to fly over, while Algeria kept mum.
Algeria broke off diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021,
accusing its neighbour of spying on its government officials. But this was just
rubberstamping the move made in 1994, when Algeria closed borders with Morocco
and later closing the airspace to Morocco flights. This means if Morocco had
wanted to travel to CHAN 2023, they should have done so via an indirect flight
from another country.
Moving away from the nasty politics, the next bad thing
linked to the tournament is the lack of interest by the entire football
fraternity in South Africa.
It is just incredible that a country with an ambition to
dominate African football is out of touch with events on the continent. CHAN is
a senior tournnament featuring teams using players playing in their country's
leagues. In simple terms, if South Africans think the PSL is among the best
leagues in Africa, then Bafana Bafana should have been in Algeria now.
As usual, SA is focusing on its staple of the domestic league (PSL) and the English Premier League.
Today, 17 January:
Mozambique v Libya (6pm)
Algeria v Ethiopia (9pm)
South African time.
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