Interesting fact: one of the African cup finalists will miss 2022 World Cup (they both are playing against each other in World Cup qualification in March)
It's so unfair. You shouldn't have knockout matches for all WC spots. Can have for a small number of teams like in Europe, but whole spots based on knockout is not fair.
I always thought CAF is stupid to arrange African Cup in middle of the season (not like Europe in June at the end of the season) forcing clubs to ban a player from attending or lose some points due to unavailable players. But more I thought about it - I understood that CAF is the only organisation which treats all continents equally. For example summers/rainy seasons could be harsh in Southern Hemisphere, so it’s tough for those leagues to stop in June just because Europeans did. So in a way they also care about small counties and normal African players who play in other part of the world. They are alone doing that, it’s great! Also I thought their World Cup qualification process is flawed, I wrote about that in the forum few weeks back. But look at it in this way. Their qualification process gives luck based chance to second tier teams, hence more chances of miracle and more hope (imagine Syria qualification campaign in 2018, that’s beautiful story). So even though couple of good teams don’t qualify (they are not missing on World Cup anyway), it helps smaller teams to dream and in the process improves football popularity in the respective county.
So bottomline is - it’s not like everything European do is correct and world should follow that (most world problems have originated in Europe as well). Africans doing something different and that’s great too.
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My second wish is, whoever lose this AFCON final should qualify for FIFA World Cup to balance the account.
But more I thought about it - I understood that CAF is the only organisation which treats all continents equally. For example summers/rainy seasons could be harsh in Southern Hemisphere, so it’s tough for those leagues to stop in June just because Europeans did. So in a way they also care about small counties and normal African players who play in other part of the world. They are alone doing that, it’s great!
Also I thought their World Cup qualification process is flawed, I wrote about that in the forum few weeks back. But look at it in this way. Their qualification process gives luck based chance to second tier teams, hence more chances of miracle and more hope (imagine Syria qualification campaign in 2018, that’s beautiful story). So even though couple of good teams don’t qualify (they are not missing on World Cup anyway), it helps smaller teams to dream and in the process improves football popularity in the respective county.
So bottomline is - it’s not like everything European do is correct and world should follow that (most world problems have originated in Europe as well). Africans doing something different and that’s great too.
They cannot have a long Qualification process for world cup otherwise their clubs will not release them.