Official African Cup of Nations 2013 thread

The African Nations Cup is once again in full flow as Zambia look to defend their title in South Africa. As always the competition will have an effect on global football as many stars players from the bigger leagues consider joining up with their countries in a bid to become kings of their home continent.

Algeria, Ivory Coast, Togo and Tunisia are in Group A of the African Cup of Nations and their involvement has either directly or indirectly affected teams such as Manchester City, West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Charlton Athletic, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur.


Manchester City are obviously the side most affected with The Elephants of Ivory Coast being among the favourites in South Africa. Both Kolo and Yaya Toure are off to represent their nations in 2013. West Ham may have to do without right-back Guy Demel while Wigan Athletic may temporarily lose Arouna Kone. Charlton Athletic may have to do without Abdul Razak for a brief period while Arsenal forward Gervinho is also in the squad. Newcastle United can take mixed emotions as Cheick Tiote is absent. Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba will remain after Ivory Coast qualified at the expense of the eventually disqualified Senegal.


Despite being one of the more successful teams in Africa Tunisia’s presence at the competition will not have overbearing significance on the Premier League. They qualified at the expense of Sierra Leone; news that will be received well at Portsmouth who will not have to say bye to Mustapha Dumbuya.


The vice-captain of the Algerian national team for the past 12 months has been Nottingham Forest midfielder Adiene Guedioura and the 27-year-old is the only absentee expected to be playing for The Fennec Foxes in South Africa.

Wolves are likely to be without Abdoul-Razak Boukari for the competition while the only other case in point is Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese talisman returned from international exile previously but has confirmed he would not participate at the Afcon after becoming unhappy at the way the players were not being paid their bonuses.


North Africans Morocco and Algeria formed the base of Pot C, adding Niger and Burkina Faso to their section, leaving Togo, Cape Verde, DR Congo and East African hopefuls Ethiopia in the final Pot.

As host nation, South Africa qualified automatically as a top seed in Group A, and they were joined by minnows Cape Verde, north African giants Morocco and Angola.

On paper, it would seem that Group D is the group of death and the most competitive of the four, as powerhouse national team Ivory Coast find themselves selected in a section containing Togo, and the north African pairing of Algeria and Tunisia.

Other interesting clashes include Ghana against Mali in Group B, with DR Congo and Niger completing the group, while the Super Eagles of Nigeria will be facing the current AFCON title holders Zambia. The two remaining national teams in Group C are Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.

Fixtures available here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fixtures?filter=competition-119001914

Never done one of these before so bear with any shortcomings. Admins please multi board.