EA Whisphers
 By MbonekoMunyaga, East African News Agency
High time East Africa hosted AfCON
(EANA)--Zambia did the unimaginable ever in continental soccer when they beat favorites, Ivory Coast in Libreville, Gabon over the weekend to lift the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations trophy in the biennial competitions that were this year staged jointly by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
When Zambia eliminated the other favourites, Ghana in the semifinals, a friend who is a seasoned sports writer quipped that the Chipolopolo Boys’ victory was a fluke and that Ghana’s national team, the Black Stars, were simply unlucky that day but deserved to be in the finals.
When Chipolopolo emerged the winners, the same journo had changed his mind. Chipolopolo, he said were by far a better side last Sunday than the star studded Ivorian national team, the Elephants that had in its lineup international superstars such as Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, a man of almost regal image on the pitch and feared striker.
Ironically Chipolopolo means copper bullets and the Elephants simply had to be felled by the bullets! Zambia is Africa’s leading copper producer. Football is the world’s hyper emotional sport with equally high stakes for national honour and pride.
Unfortunately, East Africa has featured very poorly in these games. Tanzania for instance, last played in the AfCON games in 1980, when current President of the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), LeodgarTenga was the captain of the national team. The story is not very different either for other member states of the East African Community (EAC) for none of them has ever lifted that cup.
I think it is high time AFCON matches came to East Africa. At least four East African countries could jointly host the games if there is political will to do so. Dar es Salaam has so far about the best Stadium in the region plus several training grounds that meet international standards including the Azam Football Club home ground at Chamazi, on the outskirts of the city.
AfCON games involve 16 teams. Four teams could be based in Dar es Salaam, four in Nairobi, Kenya, another four in Kampala, and four others in Kigali, Rwanda with the semifinals played in Kampala and Nairobi and the finals in Dar es Salaam’s ultra modern 60,000-seat National Stadium.
East Africa does not deserve to follow these competitions in other countries but rather to be at the centre of activity. It is something that the region deserves given that for the last 22 years, the tournament has never come to East or Central Africa.
The championships will be held in South Africa next year after the country readily offered to fill the gap left by Libya when the north African country’s ability to host the games was compromised by the aftermath of the revolution that led to the ouster and killing of the country’s former leader, MuamarGhaddafi.
The Zambians deserve a pat on the back in regional geo-politics for bring the cup closer to home. In 1994, they narrowly lost the cup after they were defeated 2-1 by Nigeria in Tunisia. Tragically, that was after they had lost almost their entire team in a disastrous plane accident a year before very much near the coast of Gabon where they playing last Sunday. The Zambians were going to play Senegal for the World Cup qualifiers.
In 1996, South Africa hosted the AfCON tournament for the first time after shaking off the shackles of apartheid and went on to retain the cup on home soil in a competition that has otherwise been dominated by Egypt, which has won the championships five times in the last 22 years.
Football is politics and football is big time business. It has also been described as the peace time equivalent of warfare. In last Sunday’s game, Drogba, of all the people, lost a 70-minute penalty shot when he sent the ball flying high over the goal post, a costly price that sent the game into post regular time penalty shootouts, which Zambia finally won 8-7.
East Africans deserve to witness such action live and not to be fans of faraway teams like my journo friend because there is nothing to cheer closer to home.
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