Sean Douglass condemns the timing and quality of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

After the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, everyone was buzzing about the potential of football in Africa, especially with the progression of Ghana. While Luis Suarez may not be the most popular guy in the world at the moment, he still deserves applause for ending the mad concept that African football is good. It’s awful. January 20 saw the start of the 2012 African Cup of Nations. At the time this article was written, it’s day eight of the tournament - and it cannot end soon enough.

However, now, the lovable folks at FIFA have announced that the next African Cup of Nations will be in 2013. Are you kidding me?! It’s as if FIFA want people to hate them. The World Cup and European Championships are every four years yet Africa has a continental tournament every two years – why? With all due respect to Africa, the stadiums are almost always half-empty and the standard of football is, quite frankly, terrible.

There are certainly some top quality players in the tournament, such as Didier Drogba, Demba Ba, Yaya Toure, Cheick Tiote, the Ayew brothers, etc. But the problem is they are few and far between and they all seem to be on the same teams, which means you’re just waiting for the cannon fodder – sorry, smaller nations – to be eliminated before Ghana/Senegal (who were surprisingly eliminated in the group stages)/Ivory Coast win it. Seriously, who wants to watch Equatorial Guinea v Libya? It’s even less appealing than watching Stoke versus, well, anyone. And that’s quite a statement.

Pundits kept preaching as Ghana advanced in the 2010 World Cup that it was great for Africa but the vast majority of the teams are so limited in terms of ability that it is baffling how some of the players are international footballers. The finishing is mediocre, the goalkeeping is just bizarre at times but the most amazing thing is how bad the tackling is. The amount of times that Quinton Fortune has said “that kind of tackle would be a red card in the Premier League” must be well into double figures and we’re not even past the group stages – Vincent Kompany must watch in despair given that he was sent off for a tackle considerably better than some of those that go unpunished in Africa.

The worst thing though is the timing of it. Admittedly it’s probably fair to say Africa will be quite warm in the summer but that didn’t stop a summer World Cup in 2010. The Premier League and the FA Cup are in full flow, the rest of Europe is heading back after the winter break and the transfer window is open; it is mind blowing that this tournament is still held in January, never mind in consecutive years.

FIFA may not be the most logical of institutions and the promotion of African football is important (especially if Newcastle keep getting bargain Africans like Ba, Tiote and Cisse!) but this tournament is desperately in need of an overhaul by aligning it with the European Championships and World Cup – make it every four years and put it in the same year as the Euros. Whilst typing this, yet another ridiculous tackle goes flying in. Only 14 days left…