That's not right

I see that Togo have been banned from the next two AFCON cups in 2012 and 2014 because they elected to pull out of the 2010 event.

That’s a bit harsh considering they had just been mown down by AK47 wielding terrorists who happened to kill two of their delegations when their bus was ambushed in Angola.

If you get attacked away from home and you watch a couple of team-mates get carted off in either bodybags or evacuated in medical helicopters, you probably do want to head home. It’s not been a good day at the office.

And now CAF is banning them from participating in the next two tournaments because the decision was taken by their political masters?

Yes I get that the precedent was set by Nigeria in 1996 and there is an economic cost to lose a team, but it hardly sounds practical considering these circumstances. I also get that the reason for the ban is for the political ” interference” as opposed to the players wanting to leave because of emotional anguish, but the long term damage that is done to Togo’s football by excluding them from a national tournament will be far-reaching.

EPL picks

Another big weekend of Premiership soccer is here with the Arsenal vs. Manchester United game likely to be a season -defining moment for these two powerhouses.

It has been a good premiership season with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all pushing eachother hard – been quite enjoyable from a punters perspective as well with some nice upsets and some really competitive fixtures.

I’m slightly in favour of Manchester United but its tough to rule out home-ground advantage for The Gunners. We’re calling either 1-1 or 1-2 to United

Here are our picks for the weekend:

Saturday fixtures
Birmingham vs Tottenham – Draw (1-1)
Fulham vs Aston Villa – 0-1 or 0-2 to Villa
Hull vs Wolves – 1-0 to Wolves
Liverpool vs Bolton – 2-0 or 3-0 to Liverpool
West Ham vs Blackburn – 1-0 West Ham
Wigan vs Everton – 1-1 or 1-2
Burnley vs Chelsea – 0-2 or 0-3 to Chelsea

Sunday Fixtures
Man City vs Portsmouth – 1-1
Arsenal vs Manchester United – 1-1 or 1-2 to United
Sunderland vs Stoke – 1-1

Hahah poor Liverpool

I meant to post this earlier today but got a little caught up.

Last night after Liverpool went down to Reading I saw some pearlers on Facebook and Twitter.

However none of them beat this comment I saw on Twitter:

"I wouldn't let Liverpool walk my dog. They can't hold on to a lead."

AFCON predictions

I haven’t followed African football too closely but with the AFCON cup here I thought I’d take a look at the betting and see if there was any value bets floating around.

Two bets jumped out at me – Egypt (8/1) and Nigeria (7/1) on World Sports Betting looks like they offer some value. The only snag I see is that they are both in the same group, hopefully they don’t do eachother some damage.

It looks like a pretty open tournament with Ivory Coast the favourites at 2/1, Cameroon 4/1 and Ghana 5/1 followed by my picks.

Wake up Africa

Last night reports came in that the Togo football team had been attacked on their team bus as they arrived in Angola. Apparently millitants sprayed their bus with machine gun fire killing the driver and injuring a couple of the players and their support staff.

In a year where Africa is finally going to host a World Cup, this is the last kind of media attention that the continent needs.

Yes, for those who have some education, there is a huge difference between South Africa and Angola, but for first time visitors to the continent, much of it is tarred with the same brush.

Not so long ago, a similar attack occured in Pakistan on the Sri Lankan cricket team. The impact on Pakistani cricket is still being felt today with many international teams refusing to tour the region because of security concerns.

It irritates the hell out of me when I read about attacks on sports teams. These are international ambassadors with NO POLITICAL intent beyond playing a game which ultimately unites a country (hopefully behind their home team). Yet to make a statement we then see if we can kill people who are doing your country a favour and hopefully giving a bit of economic impetus to already fragmented businsess.

Wake up Africa.

Africa Cup of Nations

Calling all Soccer fans,

The Africa Cup of Nations tournament kicks off on Sunday 10 January with hosts Angola taking on Mali in the opening game of Africa's football spectacle. Our SuperScore prediction game gets you closer to the action by allowing you to predict the score for each of the 32 Afcon matches.

This is your chance to show off your football knowledge and win prizes with SuperScore. All you have to do is predict the result of each game with points available for correctly predicting the match result, exact team score and margin points for coming within a goal of the final scores.

Take on SuperSport's top football pundits in the SuperSport league. With great prizes up for grabs, it's not just bragging rights you'll end up with if you get your predictions right.

Enter your predictions now at: dreamteams.supersport.com/superscore

Good luck!

Super Dream Teams

How does it go...?

I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...
I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...I must not mock the Manchester United fans, I must not mock the Manchester United fans...

Hehehhe well done Leeds, you gave me something to laugh about this afternoon... Maybe I should put some $$$ down on you guys to go all the way in the FA Cup