Nigeria legend Nwankwo Kanu has suggested a drastic solution to the Confederation of African Football’s scheduling problem around the Africa Cup of Nations.
CAF acceded to a request by Cameroon’s local organising committee last month to stage the 2021 tournament in January. This comes just one edition after it was played in June-July for the first time last year in sweltering Egypt.
Kanu, who represented Nigeria at four Afcon tournaments, agrees with Klopp, saying he would have preferred the competition to stay in June-July, in order to protect players from prospective club-versus-country disputes.
“If you ask any player, playing the Nations Cup in January leads to problems with the clubs,” the former Arsenal striker told ESPN.
“Whenever the league is on, it is always difficult for clubs to release all these good players to come back to play for their country. Then you have these issues between the club and the country.
“Taking it back means the same thing is going to start again. They should have just left it the way it was so that clubs who want our best players will still go for them.”
The former Super Eagles captain nevertheless acknowledged the unique weather conditions that necessitated the change.
“From a weather angle, it makes sense to play the Nations Cup in January so I think it is OK for them to move it.”
No matter how understandable the rationale for the change, Kanu argues that the changed schedule is still bad for the players “because if a club is going to invest a lot of money on a player [who] will not be there for a whole month during the season, then they may want to look elsewhere to find a player who will be available”.
“That makes it difficult for players who are looking for good moves.”
THE SUN, NIGERIA
