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Report: Africa Cup of Nations 2013

Five things we will learn at the Africa Cup of Nations

RFI's Paul Myers will bring us the latest news as the Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in South Africa. To begin, he previews the tournament with some interesting facts.

Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
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  • A year ago Côte d’Ivoire lost in the final to Zambia. This competition is believed to be 34-year-old Didier Drogba’s last chance to lead his team to glory. But why? Ryan Giggs is still playing for Manchester United and he’s much older than Drogba.
  • Was Zambia’s win in Gabon spiritually assisted? If so here in South Africa do they stand a ghost of a chance?
  • Will Mvuzo Mbebe, the chief executive of the local organising committee, get a new PR person during the competition? On the eve of the tournament during a rant at the media in a press conference, he thundered: “We announced on Monday that the National Stadium is sold out. Was there one single print media that had the banner that said: “Stadium sold out?” Strangely there were quite a few people saying yes.
  • How far will Hicham El Amrani go? The secretary general of African football’s governing body CAF, played a blinder as Mbebe was having a nightmare day on the park. Hardly surprising that. 37-year-old El Amrani is an ex-Morocco international and he handled his time in the media firing line with aplomb.
  • Watch out for inventive schemes to fill the stadiums. There are 850,000 seats available during the tournament. So far 563,000 have been sold. Should be easy to keep rival fans apart then.

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