January 5 – Côte d’Ivoire FA president Yacine Idriss Diallo says everything is ready in terms of preparations for the upcoming African Cup of Nations.
The country is hosting the Continent’s showpiece event, which gets under way January 13, for the first time since 1984.
“This event means a lot of things for our country, it’s a very important event. Since 2014, when it was decided that Ivory Coast would organise this competition, our country put in a lot of money,” Diallo told FourFourTwo magazine.
“But more than money, we put our heart in this organisation. And now I can say that we’re ready. We’re really ready. I can say that.”
Diallo has snubbed Nigeria’s Super Eagles, who are in the same group as the hosts, as one of the favourites.
“I trust our team but we know that we are not favourite. The favourites are Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, all those teams,” Diallo said.
“We’re building a new team. If you see our team now, I think 30% are very young, it’s their first competition. But we will try to bring a very good squad to be ready.
“So we will try to do our best to go as far as possible and try to win the trophy. This is why we are here.”
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