Is AFCON disrespected?

Karan Ahgun

— 3 min read
Is AFCON disrespected?

Following a discussion around why Mo Salah may not be held in higher regard when it comes to the Ballon D'Or award, Jamie Carragher has faced some backlash for seemingly dismissing AFCON as a major international honour. There has been a long-held feeling that Africa's international tournament has been disrespected by their Western counterparts, but why is that?

This debate was recently sparked in the aftermath of the Manchester City vs Liverpool game last Sunday, when Sky Sport's panel of pundits were discussing whether Mo Salah has a chance of winning the next Ballon D'Or. Jamie Carragher was of the opinion that Salah would have to win the Champions League to gain favour as voters did not recognise AFCON as a major tournament. And the repeated use of the term "major tournament" was particularly jarring for fans and Carragher's colleagues, Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge. Both Richards and Sturridge put forward great arguments which supported AFCON's status as a major international tournament but it seemed that Carragher was not having any of it.

One of the reasons why some may not view AFCON to be a major international tournament is the lack of visibility the tournament has globally. For example, the major broadcasters in the UK had limited coverage of the tournament. This can be linked to a lack of demand from the broadcasters' audiences and those who wanted to watch the matches were directed to online streams on BBC iPlayer. Another reason for the lack of representation for AFCON is a perceived lack of infrastructure in the nations who are hosting the tournaments. But if we look at the last few editions of the EUROs and Copa America, there have been numerous cases of a lack of organisation and/or security on match days which are similar to what AFCON has been accused of.

African football has been played down a lot by Western media. It's not something that is widely available to all so it can be understandable as to why it is so underrated as people are not exposed to what can be such vibrant and dramatic football storylines. Take last year's tournament for example. The eventual winners, Ivory Coast won the tournament, even after sacking their manager after the group stages and to top that off, the winner in the final against Nigeria was scored by Sebastian Haller who had recently recovered from testicular cancer. Football has a knack for delivering the most inspiring stories, and this was no different.

AFCON has been getting better with each passing tournament. The infrastructure in Africa has been improving steadily and each edition of the tournament brings its own stories. AFCON has certainly been looked down upon by the wider football audience in the past, but there is a growing appetite for access to the tournament, especially as football fans are demanding more and more football content. Maybe the global football fanbase is starting to realise how special AFCON can be!

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