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Africa CAF Cup

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Africa CAF Cup Winners

YearWinnerRunner Up
1992Shooting Stars (Nigeria)Nakivubo Villa SC (Uganda)
1993Stella Club (Cote d'Ivoire)Simba FC (Tanzania)
1994Bendel Insurance (Nigeria)Primeiro de Maio (Angola)
1995Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia)AS Kaloum Stars (Guinea)
1996KAC Marrakech (Morocco)Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia)
1997Esperance Sportive (Tunisia)Petro Atletico (Angola)
1998CS Sfax (Tunisia)ASC Jeanne d'Arc (Senegal)
1999Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia)WAC Casablanca (Morocco)
2000JS Kabylie (Algeria)Al Ismaily (Egypt)
2001JS Kabylie (Algeria)Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia)
2002JS Kabylie (Algeria)Tonnerre Yaounde (Cameroon)
2003Raja Casablanca (Morocco)Contonsport (Cameroon)

Africa Cup of Nations

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Africa Cup of Nations Winners

YearWinnerRunner UpHost
1957EgyptEthiopiaSudan
1959EgyptSudanEgypt
1962EthiopiaEgyptEthiopia
1963GhanaSudanGhana
1965GhanaTunisiaTunisia
1968Congo-KinshasaGhanaEthiopia
1970SudanGhanaSudan
1972CongoMaliCameroon
1974ZaireZambiaEgypt
1976MoroccoGuineaEthiopia
1978GhanaUgandaGhana
1980NigeriaAlgeriaNigeria
1982GhanaLibyaLibya
1984CameroonNigeriaCote d'Ivoire
1986EgyptCameroonEgypt
1988CameroonNigeriaMorocco
1990AlgeriaNigeriaAlgeria
1992Cote d'IvoireGhanaSenegal
1994NigeriaZambiaTunisia
1996South AfricaTunisiaSouth Africa
1998EgyptSouth AfricaBurkina Faso
2000CameroonNigeriaGhana/Nigeria
2002CameroonSenegalMali
2004TunisiaMoroccoTunisia
2006EgyptCote d'IvoireEgypt
2008EgyptCameroonGhana
2010EgyptGhanaAngola
2012ZambiaIvory CoastGabon/Equatorial Guinea
2013NigeriaBurkina FasoSouth Africa
2015Ivory CoastGhanaEquatorial Guinea
2017CameroonEgyptGabon
2019AlgeriaSenegalEgypt
2021Cameroon
2023Ivory Coast
2025Guinea

Dubai Holding and Liverpool (December 2, 2006)

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After weeks of speculation, Dubai Holding has reportedly secured a deal in principle to invest in Liverpool FC. According to reports the deal was agreed late on Friday evening for the Middle Eastern investors to buy into the club, but what is not sure is whether or not this will be a controlling interest.

Many parties have been touted as potential Liverpool FC investors from Steve Morgan, a Robert Kraft led L4 consortium, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and most recently George Gillett Jr. amongst others. Now it appears that Dubai Holding have been the favored choice all along and Liverpool’s chief executive Rick Parry has been holding talks with the company for two years now.

Current Dubai Holding Investments

DaimlerChrysler (2%)

Madame Tussaud (100%)

Carlton Tower London (100%)

Londes Hotel London (100%)

Essex House New York (100%)

Dubai Bank (70%)

Emirates Tower Hotel & Offices (75%)

Sunbelt rental apartments (21000 apartments)

Liverpool Football Club??

Dubai Holding, who have recently secured an £800m purchase of Madame Tussaud’s and the £675m buyout of Travelodge hotels, recognise Liverpool’s incredible world-wide appeal and will offer coach Rafael Benitez a sizeable transfer kitty. This should finally allow Liverpool the chance to compete with the likes of Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United in attracting the very best players as well as afford the high transfer fees that come along with them.

More importantly the “New Anfield” project which has been left on the drawing board for the last year or so could finally see the light of day. A club like Manchester United reportedly makes £1m more than Liverpool in gate receipts every home game due to their stadium Old Trafford’s greater seating capacity.

Dubai Holding have a reputation for making shrewd, timely investments and if the deal has indeed gone through as suggested, Liverpool fans world wide can look forward to a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Boring, Boring England (October 11, 2006)

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Why the surprise at England’s poor form? Surely a nation that counts Peter Crouch as their most potent weapon in front of goal can hardly be considered amongst the world’s best? Why is it that when England beat the Andorras and Faroe Islands of this world (don’t even get me started as to why these “teams” go directly into the main qualification round) by eight goals the players are hailed as the best things since 196… okay sliced bread? The 606 phone-in show is jam packed with fans claiming “Gerrard is world class”, “Becks (who?) had a blinder”, “Terry was a colossus”.

And yet it is these same fans that call back ranting when the Three Lions are brought back down to earth with a tame goalless draw at home nonetheless. “Gerrard was shocking”, “Me grandma could head the ball better than Crouch”, “Terry is a poor man’s Nesta”, “Was Lampard even playing?”

While both sets of reactions make some valid arguments, the truth lies somewhere in between. England are good but not world class. Definitely not in the top 10 footballing countries based on recent form going back 5 years. The players huff and puff (a technique that works wonders in the Premiership) but continuously fail to produce any end result. When Sven Goran Eriksson took over the reigns 6 years ago he was blessed with “the best group of young players England had ever seen”. An experienced core of Campbell, Neville, Beckham and Scholes added to the younger Gerrard, Owen, Ashley Cole and Heskey left everyone dreaming of either a World Cup or European Championship by 2006.

The Wright Decision (May 15, 2006)

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July 19th 2005, the morning after his dream transfer to the English Premier League champions, Shaun Wright-Phillips must have woken up feeling like the happiest man alive. He had just been unveiled as the answer to Chelsea’s right-sided “problem”, and the stage was set for Shaun to stake his claim as the best right winger in England even pushing for David Beckham’s starting role.

Fast forward ten months and Shaun must now be echoing his adopted father’s sentiments that he should have signed for Liverpool. Admittedly Ian Wright’s comment was tongue in cheek, but few would argue that Anfield would have been the more logical destination last summer. Not only would he have been guaranteed all those games where Steven Gerrard, Dribril Cisse, Jan Kromkamp, Steve Finnan and Luis Garcia provided makeshift cover at right-midfield, but he would most certainly have been included in Sven Goran Eriksson’s swan song. As it stands he is not even on the stand by list.

Career Highlights

October 25, 1981
Born in Greenwich, London

1996
Released by Nottingham Forest for being "too small"

August 18, 2004
Scores on his England debut against Ukraine

July 18, 2005
Joins Chelsea for £21million

For once Sven has shown the courage to select his England squad based on form alone. For the 15 or so games that Wright-Phillips was granted access to the playing field by Jose Mourinho he has failed to impress and surely Aaron Lennon is ahead of him on merit. One could even argue that were Lennon to have picked up an injury then Birmingham’s Jermaine Pennant should replace him rather than Wright-Phillips. It is one thing to gamble on a half fit Michael Owen or Wayne Rooney, but for all the hype Shaun is really in the same category as Andy Johnson and Darren Bent. All three have only had one solid EPL season and remain unproven at the highest level.

A transfer to one of the Big Four clubs should never be enough to guarantee an international place. Scott Parker quickly learnt that in order to re-ignite his career, a move away from Stamford Bridge was necessary. Only a brave man would put money on Shaun Wright-Phillips still being a Chelsea player in three months time.

Lionel Messi (January 19, 2006)

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Another off the Argentine assembly line of “New Maradonas”, Lionel Messi may be the first to live up to that unfair comparison. Where Javier Saviola, Juan Roman Riquelme and Pablo Aimar have unsurprisingly failed to match HIS high standards despite initial promise, Messi has shown that even at a young age he is able to carry the weight of expectant teammates and a nation on his shoulders.

Credit must also be given to his Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard for not rushing him into a starting place at Barcelona he is more than ready to hold.

“It is clear Messi is a talent, a future player, but I ask that everyone continues supporting him when he is out of the team because he is still very young.” Rijkaard said in a recent interview. He continued:

Career Highlights

June 24, 1987
Born in Rosario, Argentina

2000
Lionel and his family move to Spain to help treat his hormonal growth deficiency

Signs for Barcelona at the age of 13

October 16, 2004
Makes his Barcelona first tem debut against RCD Espanyol

May 1 2005
Becomes the youngest league scorer in Barcelona’s history against Albacete when he scored his first goal at 17 years, ten months and seven days

June 2005
Helps the Argentina Under 20 team win the FIFA World Youth Championship scoring two goals against Nigeria in the Final

June 27, 2005
Renews his contract with Barcelona until 2010 with a €150 million buy-out clause

August 4, 2005
Receives his first call up to the Argentine national team

September 25, 2005
Obtains Spanish citizenship allowing him to play more games for Barcelona no longer being restricted by the non-EU player quota

“I’m convinced about him because I know he isn’t paying attention to all the speculation in the media.”He prefers to do his talking on the pitch.”

In fact his three goals and one assist in nine league starts for Barcelona this season to add to his goal and assist in the UEFA Champions League back up his coaches claim, and at 18 years young we are only just starting to see glimpses of his enormous potential. Messi states:

“I want to keep on learning and I hope things go well for me. The thing is to help the team as much as possible.”

These are the words of a young man with a focused head on his shoulders and more importantly good advisors around him. How many times have we seen the vultures swoop in on young prodigies sweet talking them and their parents into committing career suicide by sulking and demanding more playing time only to become no more than a trivia question five years down the road.

With the World Cup in Germany swiftly approaching Lionel Messi will definitely be one to watch if selected for national duty.

Enrique Domínguez, Messi’s former coach said “He could do things with the ball that defied the laws of physics. The only other person I have ever seen do that was Diego Maradona”.

Let us all recall that Maradona himself did not come into his own until the 1986 World Cup in Mexico despite being tipped for great things in Spain four years prior. That World Cup was a general disappointment for Maradona as well as Argentina. Messi will be three years younger than Maradona was in his first World Cup appearance and it is important that we all allow Lionel to continue developing at his current pace without placing on him too much pressure for a teenager to handle. For his part Messi must maintain his enthusiasm and work ethic that has so far impressed his coaches and peers. If he can do that then the sky is indeed his limit.