“A competition which offers so many emotions is a successful competition”, according to Claude Le Roy

The African Cup of Nations ended on Sunday with the consecration of Côte d’Ivoire at home. Quality of the game, refereeing, infrastructure… This edition ticked all the boxes for a successful competition.

The African Cup of Nations (CAN) is regularly the subject of ridicule, particularly on social networks, due to referees who are sometimes a little careless, poorly maintained lawns, or a low or even very high level of play. weak. Nay for this 2024 edition in Ivory Coast, which saw the host country win in the final against Nigeria, Sunday February 11, after a journey that will go down in history. The organizing country dreamed of making it “the CAN of the century”, or even “the best CAN in history”.

For Claude Le Roy, nine CANs on the clock as coach and first French coach to win an edition (in 1988 with Cameroon), this edition seems to tick all the boxes for a successful cup: “There were some average matches but most gave such emotions, because that’s football too… There was rhythm, goals, incredible reversals. And a competition which offers so many emotions , it’s a successful competition.”

Leveling up

Unexpected courses, stunning scenarios, add to that a level of refereeing and generally satisfactory infrastructure, and you will obtain the cocktail of this year in Côte d’Ivoire. “This edition gives a very positive signal on a lot of points which were criticized. I find that it is one of the toughest CANs that I have been able to coversays Patrick Juillard, specialist in African football and journalist for Sport365. We also had scenarios, with stunning matches, where Ivory Coast went from zero to hero, from practically eliminated to finalist – or African champion.”

Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon… The early elimination of certain big teams gave an unprecedented turn to the competition. None of the CAN quarter-finalists in 2019 were present in this final phase of CAN 2024.There have been a lot of penalty shootout qualifiers which are much more of a mental and psychological exercise than a technical exerciseanalyzes Claude Le Roy. Teams that were said to be favorites were under much more pressure from the exercise. Their opponent said to himself: ‘Anyway, everything we’ve done is already good. And if we qualify, it’s just a bonus..”

Drop in the level of big teams? Or are these selections caught up with others deemed more “weak”? “I find that there are a greater number of well-armed countries. Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, it was always the samenotes Patrick Juillard. Today, we really have an increase in skills. So-called medium or even small teams are better prepared. We see this with the case of Mauritania for example.“By beating Algeria in group play (1-0, January 23), Mauritania offered itself the very first participation in its history in the round of 16 of the competition.

In 2017, a new version of the competition was unveiled by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Exit the 16-team format, the CAN is now played with 24 since the 2019 edition, and takes a format similar to that of the Euro. Some feared a drop in the level with the entry of selections deemed weaker into the contingent of qualified teams. “We see that there are few really weak teams: Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique especiallyanalyzes Patrick Juillard. We are at almost three goals per match, it is a sign that it is very competitive, that there is no one-sided match.”

Claude Le Roy, also called the “White Wizard”, pushes the reflection even further and believes that the success of this enlargement at the African level will be felt on the world stage: “I was one of those who doubted. But now, that means that there are around fifteen African teams who can apply for a place at the World Cup and ultimately, have a world champion.”

Better in arbitration

Only two matches ended with a score with a four-goal difference, and not necessarily for the team we most expected: Ivory Coast lost to Equatorial Guinea in the group (4- 0). It was with this same score that South Africa corrected Namibia, also in the first round.

The refereeing, often the subject of debate, mockery, and above all controversy, during previous editions, also seems to have been up to the task. The introduction of VAR, during the 2022 edition, was not convincing, with the referees not having sufficient control over it. Two years later, the tools were sharpened, Goal Line Technology added, and African refereeing took a new turn: “aligned the CAN with other major European competitions. This is positive and for the moment, there have been no glaring errors in their use.”underlines Patrick Juillard before adding: “A new generation of referees has emerged in Africa. We also had a Moroccan referee, Bouchra Karboubi, that’s going in the right direction. It’s overall better in terms of the relationship with the player.”

In terms of infrastructure, players, coaches, and followers are generally satisfied with the services offered: “I think it’s the best CAN I’ve played in. The quality of the grounds, the stadiums…“, confided Ahmed Musa, Nigerian international, at a press conference the day before the final. “We often criticized the quality of the pitches, we felt that we were playing on pitches unworthy of a competition of this level, potato fields, points out Patrick Juillard. There, in almost all of the stadiums, the pitches are of excellent quality.”

“The Ivorians wanted to show that they were capable, that it was a serious country.”

Patrick Juillard

at franceinfo: sport

Enough to give African football a little more credibility in the eyes of Europeans? “Do you know a subject on which Europeans do not feel superior to Africans?quips Claude Le Roy. I am not sure. Stupidity lives on its certainties. When we see the tone in which people talk about the CAN…”

In countries where the organization of such a competition is entirely dependent on the political and economic context, it is impossible to model European criteria on African ones. Ivory Coast has been one of the ten largest economic powers on the continent since 2021, a significant factor to take into account when judging the quality of the competition. “The CAN and the Euro are not comparable. We must not align ourselves with European standards, warns Patrick Juillard. Each continent has its own truth, we should not align everything with Europe.”