Disclaimer: I do not know who this reporter is, other than he is followed by Simon Hughes.
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Fuck it. 
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Note that what concerns are being raised have little to do with Covid and more to do with Cameroon continued inability to get their infrastructure finished, despite originally supposed to be hosting the tournament in 2019. I’m not holding out much hope of the right decision being made here.
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Although in the minor leagues; for a country of their sizes Cape Verde and Comoros have lots of European-based players.
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Read some interesting stuff about Taiwo Awoniyis nomination today:
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Union Berlin are angry with Nigerias FA because of the late nomination. There seems to be a rule that clubs have to be informed 15 days before the tournament starts.
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Cameroon is a ‘high risk area’ at the moment and Awoniyi does not have to quarantine when he returns because he is vaccinated. However if Cameroons status changes to ‘virus variant area’ quarantine would be necessary.
That can be avoided during a 48 hours window after declaration and Unions manager confirmed that they have an agreement with the player and his agent that he would use that window and come back immediately.
Would be interesting to see if he would be allowed to leave by his national team.
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It’s fascinating because for years we needed him to start getting games for the national team so he could qualify for a work permit, and now he’s actually included in a rather prestigious competition, it comes at such a bad time for him…
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AFCON is generally one of my favorite tournaments. However this recent media construct that AFCON is also one of the most “disrespected” tournaments I find insulting horseshit.
Pandemic or not, I find it particularly outrageous that any club (read: employer) should be forced to release its paid employees midseason for a month long tournaments on a different continent while said paid work is still ongoing. I get it though, the allure of playing a kids game in the name of National “pride” and “honor”. 
Would make more sense if there was a pre-planned break. Labor laws are fascinating.
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The criticism for Watford is disappointing. I don’t agree at all with how they treat their managers but I can 100% align with this. A club in a relegation scrap, wanting to protect an investment for the medium and long term. An investment they don’t feel comfortable releasing not being 100% healthy.
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Jan 10: Senegal vs. Zimbabwe and Guinea vs. Malawi
Jan 11: Egypt vs. Nigeria
Jan 14: Senegal vs. Guinea
Jan 15: Egypt vs. Guinea-Bissau
Jan 18: Senegal vs. Malawi and Guinea vs. Zimbabwe
Jan 19: Egypt vs. Sudan
Who are the bookies’ favourites to win this, do we have a list?
Elfenbeinkuste are Ivory Coast?
Guinea is not expected to make it far in the competition so Keita should be back pretty fast, whether fit or not is another question. But Senegal and Egypt are expected to be doing well in the competition so the chance of losing both Mane and Salah for at least a month plus the recovery periods is very real. I trust the club and Klopp to manage this and they should because they already knew about this for a long time now so whatever decision they have taken regarding players and recruitment in this window should be reflected in positive results on field.
Hoping and pray that we do not see too many of the “African tackles” from sides who are losing to our boys.
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16 out of 24 teams advance to the next round, which includes four third-placed teams from the group stage.
I think I worked it out as this
Last 16 - Back for the FA Cup 4th Round if we make it
Q Final - Back for Leicester
S Final/Final - Back for the game the following Sunday.
As there is a third place playoff then if they make the semifinals they stay til the Saturday which might make them available for the Leicester game on the Thursday.
Can’t see Klopp starting them but perhaps the bench.
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Senegal is a perennial underachiever.
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I would like to reiterate my stance of how stupid this tournament is. Global pandemic with new case records being set daily? Check. Going to a war torn country where security is laughable at best? Check. Honestly all I hope is that our players make it through unscathed. Although knowing how much Keita is made to play through injury by his dickhead International managers I am not holding my breath
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