Football year in review – Africa

Ivory Coast pulled off a most sensational comeback to win their home Africa Cup of Nations finals in a busy, and most absorbing, 12 months for the game on the continent.

The year 2024 started in the most dramatic of fashion in the Ivory Coast, who pulled out all the stops to host a tournament rightfully hailed as the best the continent has delivered to date but almost buckled under the burden of expectation.

There was more success for Al Ahly of Egypt at club level and a first-ever win for TP Mazembe in the Women’s Champions League, plus the rapid-fire completion of the qualifiers for the next Cup of Nations, to be hosted in Morocco at the end of 2025.

Ivory Coast could be perceived among the most fortuitous winners ever of a major continental title, or indeed a side of admirable resilience and mental fortitude who suffered a plummet to the depths but then pulled themselves back from the brink in the most extraordinary circumstances.

But whatever label, if ever a host nation has had a circuitous path to glory, then it is the Elephants, who became the first home team to take the Africa Cup of Nations since Egypt in 2006.

They snuck through the group stages of their own tournament, emerging as the last of the four best third placed finishers with a paltry three points from their group games, before embarking on a run of narrow escapes that saw them end Senegal’s reign, come back to beat Mali despite being down to 10 men and then take the title with a fairytale finish, as Sebastien Haller touched home the winner, some 18 months after his cancer diagnosis.

It was emotive roller coaster that makes sport so compelling.

Playing at home, the Ivorians were always going be fancied, even though they have not been among Africa’s heavyweights since last winning the Cup of Nations in 2015.

But they laboured under a weight of expectation in their opening game, were then out muscled by Nigeria before a humiliating defeat against tiny Equatorial Guinea in a contest where everything that could go wrong for them did and vice versa for the opponent.

In the three days while the Ivorians waited to see out whether they were still in their own tournament, which cost the state an estimated US$1-billion to put on, their veteran French coach Jean Louis Gasset was sent packing. It was left to Gasset’s assistant Emerse Fae to take over, appointed on his 40th birthday.

In the final, the Ivorians dominated early but Nigeria led at the break. The tide turned with Franck Kessie’s equaliser and then Haller got the winner to complete a most riveting month of twists, turns and dramatic travails.

In mid-year there were two more rounds of World Cup qualification as all of the 53 African countries involved in the battle for nine automatic spots in North America in 2006 played in June but with six more rounds to follow, resuming in March, there is still much to be decided.

That means there is still a lifeline for Nigeria, who find themselves in troubled waters because after four matches in Group C are yet to win a game and sit stranded near the bottom of their six-team group with a paltry three points.

In June were held at home by South Africa before losing to Benin in neutral Abidjan.

Mohmed Salah took his tally in the qualifiers to five goals with a stunning equaliser as Egypt drew away against Guinea Bissau, while Sudan are the surprise package of the early exchanges in the qualifiers as they lead Senegal in Group B.

Infrastructure in the country has collapsed because of the civil war and the players fled the country. But under Kwesi Appiah, the ex-Ghana captain who was in charge of his country at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Sudan have won three of their four games, including beating Mauritania and South Sudan away in their June fixtures.

Jordan Ayew also scored a hattrick for Ghana in a thrilling 4-3 home win over the Central African Republic, plus got a last gasp away winner against Mali, for the Black Stars to show some signs of a revival after their dismal showing at January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals.

But then Ghana proved the big losers in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with the three-month qualifying campaign delivering multiple surprises but, in the end, producing a formidable field for next year’s finals tournament.

Morocco participated in the preliminaries despite being guaranteed a berth as hosts and produced the only 100 per cent record, fueled by the emergence of Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz as their new talisman.

His seven goals in four matches made him the top scorer in qualifying, which kicked off in September and was completed in three international windows.

Holders Ivory Coast also coasted into the finals although finished second in their group behind Avram Grant’s Zambia.

Half of the field for the 2025 finals are past winners but the absence of Ghana is a shock, particularly the limp fashion in which their campaign was conducted.

In the end, they finished bottom of Group F, without a solitary win, after a series of humiliating setbacks.

There were several coaches who lost their jobs during campaign, notably Aliou Cisse after nine years in charge of Senegal. But his removal had nothing to do with results but rather a refusal of the new government to renew his contract. As in several other African countries, the government pays the coach’s salary and so rides roughshod over the football association when it comes to hiring and firing.

The 2025 qualifying campaign will likely be best remembered for a match that did not happen.

In a bizarre act of gamesmanship, Libya diverted the incoming charter flight of the Nigerian team to an isolated military airfield on the eve of their match in Benghazi in October. 15, and then left the Nigerian players and officials there for some 16 hours, almost 250km away from their intended destination.

The intention was to frustrate them but with the Nigerian players highlighting their plight on social media, it quickly became an international incident. In the end, the furious Nigerians packed up and flew home and several weeks later were awarded a 3-0 win by CAF.

Besides losing the points, Libya were only fined for their antics and remained in contention to qualify when they hosted Benin their last match, needing a win.

It ended 0-0, which saw Benin through, and the reaction of the livid Libyans was to have several policemen beat up the Benin coach Gernot Rohr.

There was an overwhelming familiarity about the 2023-24 Champions League campaign, as Egypt’s Al Ahly won the title for the fourth time in five years.

Not only yet another trophy for the continent’s dominant force but also the measured way in which they went about their business, again not overtly impressive in the group stage but qualifying comfortably nevertheless and then surging through the knockout stages to the take the trophy.

They edged Esperance from Tunisian by a lone goal over the two legs of the final and a scrappy effort at that, but it was a deserved success – their 12th in total, stretching their record number of wins in the continent’s top club competition.

Captain Rami Rabia, who now has five winners’ medals, headed home the only goal in the fourth minute of the second leg in Cairo from Hussein El Shahat’s corner. It took a deflection off Roger Aholou, and crept into the corner of the net, but it seemed harsh that the goal was credited to Esperance Togo international midfielder.

The African Confederation Cup was won by Zamalek, who edge Renaissance Berkane of Morocco on the away goals rule after a 2-2 aggregate draw in the final.

Mazembe’s ladies won the fourth edition of the Women’s Champions League, which was hosted in Morocco on November.

On an individual level, London-born Nigeria international Ademola Lookman was named African Footballer of Year, ahead of Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Serhou Guirassy of Guinea, Simon Adingra from the Ivory Coast and South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.

The 27-year-old Lookman scored a hattrick as his Italian club Atalanta won the Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin in May and earlier in the year helped Nigeria reach the Cup of Nations final in the Ivory Coast. Zambian Barbra Banda was Women’s Player of the Year.