African Cup Of Nations Football Betting 2010
As ever with tournament football betting (The African Cup of Nations football betting 2010 being no exception), the plethora of online betting opportunities come thick and fast, with an equally as mesmerising breakdown of sub-plots to take your pick from. Aside from the stark-staringly obvious African Cup of Nations 2010 Outright Win, there's a multitude of alternative ways to splash your African Cup of Nations football betting 2010 cash. Perhaps African Cup Of Nations 2010 Top Goalscorer will catch the eye? Or failing that, how about placing a wager on the African Cup Of Nations 2010 New Winner market? A more leftfield choice would be predicting whether or not Video Evidence will be introduced on the African Cup of Nations football betting stage for the first time to decide the otherwise undecided, while African Cup Of Nations 2010 Stage Of Elimination is bound to be another populists choice ahead of the tournament's first whistle.
African Cup of Nations Football Betting 2010 will also see its fair share of in-play wagering going on throughout the course of the globally televised competition, as more and more of you opt to update and revise your punts in a real time scenario, changing your predictions as the game takes on a new direction in front of your eyes. All-in-all adding even more nail-biting excitement and fervour to each and every game that you're privy to.
African Cup Of Nations 2010 Shaping Up To Be Massive Online Football Betting Event According To Virtual Bookies
On the 20th November 2009 the draw was made in the host nation (Luanda, Angola) to ascertain the groups that would face each other to form the official starting point to the 2010 African Cup of Nations campaign. The last major football International Football tournament to be played before the forthcoming FIFA 2010 World Cup Finals, set to be staged on the same continent next summer. The following 16 African nations were placed in the pot that would decide just which national team faced the other in the initial group stages of the 2010 African Cup of Nations; Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Zambia, Togo and Malawi the names to be randomly chosen from the hat.
Equally as telling as the teams that had made it to the 2010 African Cup of Nations, were the big-name country's that hadn't. Teams representative of country such as Senegal, Morocco, Congo and World Cup 2010 hosts themselves, South Africa found themselves glaringly absent from the draw. That said, the African teams who boast the best records at the Cup of Nations are all present and correct, with Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and the Ivory Coast all lining up and looking as strong as ever, whilst underdogs like Togo, Zambia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Benin will turn up in spirited fashion and not just to make up numbers. Otherwise all eyes will be locked on Malawi, who as a footballing nation last competed in the African Cup of Nations back in 1985.
Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria And Cameroon Head African Cup Of Nations Football Betting 2010 Markets
In the event, and Group A in the 2010 African Cup of Nations will bear witness to host nation Angola face Mali, new-boys Malawi and recent World Cup Football 2010-bound finalist, Algeria in Luanda. Group B sees two of the pre-tournament favourites – Ghana and Ivory Coast – square up to each other from the outset of hostilities, with Burkina Faso and Togo the possible make-weights in a tough, yet exciting group. The much-fancied defending champions, Egypt will find their work cut out with Nigeria jostling for prime position in Group C, however Mozambique and Benin will be left to fight it out for any scraps. And finally in Group D, Cameroon and Tunisia stand the best chance of progression on first glance, with Gambia and Gabon concluding the fellow combatants.
The 2010 African Cup of Nations springs into action as of the 10th January 2010, and runs through to the final scheduled to be contested on the 31st of the same month. Angola has provided purpose-built new stadia in the capital city, Luanda, as well as provincial capitals such as Benguela (Complexo da Sr. da Graca stadium), Cabinda (Estadio Chimandela) and Lubango (Estadio Alto da Chela) to house and showcase the 32-fixture tournament that gets under way (and sees the final played out) in Luanda's new 40,000-seat, Estadio Cidade Universitaria stadium.
Angola was chosen ahead of Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Senegal in a bid to give emerging nations the opportunity to stage the most prestigious football tournament in Africa's international soccer calendar, with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea lined-up to host the biennial event in 2012.
African Cup Of Nations 2010 Odds On To Provide Chelsea With Premier League Headache, Robbing Them Of Drogba, Essien And Kalou
While the African Cup of Nations serves as a fantastic global shop window for the naturally gifted players that comprise the African continent and the respective countries of their nations, there's no doubt that the 2010 tournament will take on extra significance once it's under way as football experts attempt to predict just which teams that do well in Angola with a keen eye to the 2010 World Cup, and moreover to determine whether or not Pele's prophecy will come to realisation later in the summer, and the possibility of an African nation lifting the famous Jules Rimet trophy aloft. Signs and pointers will be aplenty as footballing scholars read the subtext of every team formation, strategy, kick, pass and game-plan as they set about pre-empting the main event that's to follow.
Not that we're taking anything away from the 2010 African Cup of Nations let it be understood. Fans of English football have grown ever more interested in the increasingly popular tournament as greater numbers of African players integrate into the British game, with many of the biggest stars in the African Cup of Nations appearing on a weekly basis in the Barclays Premier League. Indeed, household names like Chelsea's Ivorian Coast strikers, Didier Drogba and Saloman Kalou, Manchester City's Kolo Toure and Arsenal defender, Emmanuel Eboue, Manchester City and Togo play-maker, Emmanuel Adebayor and Aston Villa's Moustapha Salifou, Ghana and Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien, Arsenal and Cameroon's Alexandre Song, Tottenham Hotspur and Cameroon's Sebastien Bassong, Burnley and Cameroon's Andre Bikey, Bolton Wanderers and Nigeria's Danny Shittu, Everton and Nigeria's Joseph Yobo and Victor Anichebe, a couple of Nigerian-born Hull City players no one has heard of, Portsmouth's Algerian stars Nadir Belhadj and Hassan Yebda, Hull City and Algeria player Kamel Ghilas and Hull City's Gabon striker Daniel Cousin could rob their employers of their services to football in January. In theory.
Chelsea's Premier League 2009-2010 Rivals Could Make On African Cup Of Nations 2010 Selection Dilemma
Which is exactly the grist of the matter with some Premier League managers who believe that all of this African coming and going will have a bearing on the Barclays Premier League too, and so with it bring into focus the importance of the upcoming January transfer window to many English clubs as their coach's look to temporarily fill the void left by departing – Angola-bound – high profile players for the entirety of the first month of the new year. Which in terms of the Premiership, couldn't be a more critical time as the potential final destination of the Barclays Premier League 2009-2010 title, UEFA Champions League 2009-2010 and FA Cup 2009-2010 becomes more clear.
The exodus of key African personnel from Premier League outfits chasing honours or staving off the threat of relegation cuts no ice with the organisers of the African Cup of Nations, who refuse to budge its occurrence which falls smack bang in the middle of January every other year. Over a decade ago this wouldn't have made a huge amount of difference in the run of things, as Nigeria's Daniel Amokachi at Everton and Ghana's Tony Yeboah at Leeds United shuffling off to Africa barely registered a flicker of discontent across their respective managers' faces. Yet when you're talking about players with the quality of Drogba, Essien, Adebayor and John Obi Mikel things take on a more meaningful complexion.
Chelsea have the most to worry about once the African Cup of Nations gets under way in Angola in January 2010, as both Didier Drogba and Michael Essien will both be reporting for international duty for their teams and could be missing in action for the entire month given they play for two of the favourites for the competition, the Ivory Coast and Ghana respectively, whilst Drogba's Ivorian team-mate at Stamford Bridge – Salomon Kalou – will also have an untimely Premier Sabbatical.
Egypt, Cameroon And Ghana Lead The Way In African Cup Of Nations Successes
With reference to the African Cup of Nations 2010 tournament format, and the group stages involve each of the four teams within each playing the others once between the 10th of January 2010 and the 21st of January 2010, with the winner and runner-up from groups A to D heading for the knock-out stages which will be contested on the 24th and 25th of January 2010. The victors in the four Quarter Finals will then contest the Semi Finals, before the winners of each face each other in the African Cup of Nations Final itself on the 31st of January 2010.
The African Cup of Nations has spawned 13 individual winners in over 50 years of competition, with reigning champions Egypt standing as the most successful nation in the competition's history, having claimed 6 Cup of Nations titles. Cameroon and Ghana follow, lifting the trophy on no fewer than 4 previous occasion apiece. In its infancy, the African Cup of Nations was limited to the involvement of just four teams from 1957, yet by the 1970s eight teams were challenging each other for the much sought-after silverware, as the tournament gained wider recognition thanks to the advent and broader availability of television. However it was only in relatively recent history that the African Cup of Nations expanded to allow twelve teams to battle it our for honours, when in 1992 a South African side fielded a team for the first time ever. In 1996, South Africa hosted – and went on to win – the African Cup of Nations, with 16 teams competing against one another.