February 16 – Walk Like an Egyptian

WHEREAS in England the African Cup of Nations is viewed by most managers with contempt, as the Premier League’s growing number of African stars miss out on a month’s worth of domestic fixtures, the tournament has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years.

Today in 1957 the first edition was coming to climax as Egypt romped home to the inaugural title.

The tournament was first proposed a year earlier when the Confederation of African Football was created at a Fifa congress in Lisbon and the new organisation wasted no time in getting the contest organised.

Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa, the four founding nations of CAF, were invited, but the Bafana Bafana refused to send a multi-racial squad to the competition and were thusly kicked out, giving Ethiopia a bye to the final.

This meant that only two matches were played in the tournament, with Egypt beating Sudan 2-1 to book their place in the final. This proved to be a more one-sided affair as the Pharaohs romped to a 4-0 win, with striker Mohamed Diab El-Attar bagging all four goals.

Egypt had come into the tournament with a sopt of pedigree, having been the first African country to have competed in a World Cup, after their appearance in Italy in 1934 where they were dumped out by Hungary and had also picked up an Olympic bronze in 1928.

The competition grew steadily during the 1960s, with eight teams battling it out for the crown in what was usually a very open tournament, proved by the fact that 13 different nations have picked up the prize.

With six wins Egypt have won the title the most times, including victories in the last two tournaments. The 2008 contest was a cracking display of entertaining, powerful football only let down by some substandard goalkeeping.

As the tournament grows in popularity across the globe, Sepp Blatter has been quick to poke his beak in, as the power-brokers at Europe’s top clubs have been calling for the competition to be moved into the summer to fit into the international calendar and keep the continent’s European-based players at their clubs.

This would prevent several countries in central Africa from hosting the tournament as it would clash with their wet seasons, but knowing where the real power lies in football these days we can guess who will eventually win this argument.

Next year’s ACN will be held in Angola as the organisers seek to give some of the continent’s newer nations a chance to host the tournament. If you can’t wait that long for some CAN action, check out some action from Egypt’s 2008 success below and see what else went on in this crazy game we call football today here.