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CAN 2006: Let the games begin
The huge festival of African football gets started in Egypt this Friday. More hotly contested than ever, the competition promises to be spectacular and there are five Olympians in action. Find out more...


Almost 20 days of competition, 16 national teams will go head to head to become, on the evening of February 10, the successor to Roger Lemerre’s Tunisia, the 2004 winners. Often criticised by Europe for its organisation in the middle of the season, the CAN remains one of the world’s biggest footballing events. Especially in France, where Ligue 1 alone, will furnish no less than 72 players, as indicated the daily sports paper l'Equipe on Thursday. Among them, the five Olympians are Mamadou Niang and Habib Beye for Senegal, Taye Taiwo and Wilson Oruma for Nigeria and finally Abdou Méité for the Ivory Coast. The draw even decided that the Senegalese and the Nigerians would be in the same group. (CFull draw below).

The tournament is full of class, starting with the five African nationas that are qualified for the World Cup in Germany later this year: The Ivory Coast Elephants, Togo’s Epervier, the Palancas Negras of Angola, Ghana’s Black Cats and the Eagles of Carthage, Tunisia. These teams may be the favourites, but beware the outsiders warned OM President Pape Diouf, with his special eye on African football. With the involvement of so many European-based players we can imagine the favourites will appear in all the predictions, teams like the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal and the northern Arab countries, and in my opinion a team like Egypt, playing at home, will be very hard to beat. The winner will certainly come from one of these teams. I don’t think there’ll be any surprise, even though a team like Togo has qualified for the World Cup,” claimed the Olympian president, who hails from Senegal.

Created in 1957 the competition is as popular as ever in Africa. An atmosphere only heightened by the presence of stars from some of the world’s biggest clubs, such as Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, Obafemi Martins or even Emmanuel Adebayor. Kick-off is this Friday at 18:00 when Egypt take on Libya in Cairo.

Olympians Watch

Group A: IVORY COAST

January 21: Marocco – Ivory Coast 14:00 (Cairo)

January 24: Libya – Ivory Coast 17:15 (Cairo)

January 28: Egypte – Ivory Coast 19:00 (Cairo)


Group D: SENEGAL

January 23: Zimbabwe - Senegal 20:00 (Port Saïd)

January 27: Ghana - Senegal 17:15 (Port-Saïd)

January 31: Nigeria - Senegal 19:00 (Port-Saïd)


Group D: NIGERIA

January 23: Nigeria - Ghana 17:15 (Port-Saïd)

January 27: Nigeria - Zimbabwe 20:00 (Port-Saïd)

January 31: Nigeria - Senegal 19:00 (Port-Saïd)


Quarter-finals, February 3and 4
Semi-finals, February 7
Third-place play-off, February 9
Final, February 10 in Cairo

Follow the matches on Europort, TV5 or Canal Horizons



Beye: “Our goal is to win”
Just a few days before the start of competition, Habib Beye, the Senegal and Marseille defender talked about his countries ambitions in the African Cup of Nations.

What are Senegal’s hopes for this CAN?
Senegal is here to win. Senegal has never won and has only made one final, lost on penalties, so we badly want to win this CAN to take the trophy back to our people.

Today’s Senegal team is very experienced…
The current generation of players is ready to move on because we’ve already played in two CANs and a World Cup. It will get some new blood and evolve. If we don’t win now, it will be tough for this generation to win it again.

You’ll be playing against your teammates from Nigeria, Taiwo and Oruma, who are in your group. How will that go?
There’s a chance I’ll be right-back and Taiwo left-back. It will be a great battle. What would be good is for Nigeria to be eliminated quickly so that OM can get two players back!

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Jean Fernandez 'worried' about Niang

Suffering from an injured thigh, the Senegal attacker has already resumed training with the national team. "He's training," explained Jean Fernandez on Thursday. "He should have had another scan last night.(Wednesday). I'm worried. I'll have to get him on the phone toay. If he comes back from the CAN injured, we could have a problem for the UEFA Cup clash against Bolton on the 15th." Senegal's fist match of the 2006 CAN s against Zimbawe on Monday, the 23rd.

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Good news for Niang
Jean Fernandez rceived good news regarding Mamadou Niang. His national team coach even hopes to get him back in time for Senegal’s first match.



Jean Fernandez is reassured: “Mamadou has returned to training an dis doing a lot better. From what e understand, he’ll be totally recovered for Senegal’s opening match,” (to be played on Monday) he revealed on Friday.
“At first it was an injured thigh and there was talk of a tear. I know that he was injured. Then he took ten days off and it’s good that its better. Good for him, good for us and Senegal. Now he has to be careful, because when you return from injury you have to pay attention to everything, hygiene, diet, treatment, recovery... It’s something very fragile and h has to stay on his guard because we need him,” he added.

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Fernandez: Delighted for the Africans
Jean Fernandez was delighted by the excellent performances of the Olympians at the CAN
"I'm really happy for them. The CAN is special for them and it's great that both teams won. I saw a very good match between Nigeria and Ghana and Taiwo showed how good he is by offering victory to his side with a free-kick just before the end," said Jean Fernandez.
"Senegal's match was also very interesting. Habib (Beye) played well and Mamadou (Niang) looked to have recovered well and have plenty of energy. His injury seemed nothing more than a bad memory and that's good news," he added.

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CAN: Méïté's Ivory Coast wins
A second win and qualification for the quarter-finals is now in view
In beating Libya 2-1 on Tuesday afternoon, the Ivory Coast registered their second straight win of the 2006 CAN.
Drogba and Touré scored for the Ivorians. Abdoulaye Méïté was in the starting XI and the Marseille defender played the whole match.

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CAN: All the Olympians into the semis!
After Senegal on Friday and Nigeria earlier on Saturday, it was then the turn of Abdoulaye Méïté’s Cote d’Ivoire to book their place in the semi-finals at the expense of Cameroon (1-1, 12-11 on penalties).

The Olympians at the CAN have been shining since Friday in the quarter-finals. The great ran began with Senegal against Guinea (3-2) and a key goal to Niang. On Saturday, Nigeria went all the way to penalties before overcoming reigning champions Tunisia on penalties, 1-1 (6-5). Wilson Oruma didn’t play but Taye Taiwo started and didn’t miss with his spot kick.

Later in the evening, it was the Cote d’Ivoire’s turn to book their place in the next round against Cameroon. Without Abdou Méité, who remained on the bench, the game exploded into life in extra-time Kone (91’) gave the Elephants the lead before Meyong Ze (94’) drew tham back level. But the most amazing was yet to come. After 11 successful penalties on each side it came down to a battle between Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba. The Barcelona ace missed and the former-OM striker fired his side into a semi-final against Nigeria. Three from three for OM’s African.

This Tuesday at 14:00 the Cote d’Ivoire takes on Nigeria in Alexandriaand then, at 18:00 Senegal take on Egypt in Cairo.