Organisers forced to tweak the rules as popularity of African Nations Cup at Angle Park soars
More than 10,000 fans are expected at the talent-spotting extravaganza that is the African Nations Cup at Angle Park this weekend as it celebrates its 20th edition.
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Talent scouts will be hunting for the next Awer Mabil when teams from 20 nations converge on Angle Park for the 20th edition of SA’s African Nations Cup this weekend.
Socceroo Mabil featured at the 2012 Angle Park games for South Sudan after making his senior debut for Campbelltown City before signing with Adelaide United and now Denmark’s FC Midtjylland.
Then there’s Melbourne Victory’s former SA-based attacker Elvis Kamsoba — who played regularly at SA’s version of the cup — who this year played in the real thing at the Cup of African Nations for Burundi in Egypt.
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Mabok Deng Mabok Marial, chairman of the African Communities Council of SA, has been overseeing the tournament since there was just a handful of nations competing and is expecting more than 10,000 fans to attend over the weekend.
He said an Adelaide United initiative to select the best players from the long weekend event to earn a chance to play against the club’s NPL side, had piqued even more interest in the annual festival of soccer.
“They (Adelaide United) said they will pick a best 11 and offer these young men a chance to play against Adelaide United’s NPL team which is a great incentive for all players,’’ he said.
“We’re very happy that Adelaide United is on board, it’s a mutual benefit at the end of the day.
“A lot of these clubs now know that good players are in this tournament, not just African players, many other players are involved.”
So popular has the tournament become that organisers have had to introduce a limit of three interstate players per squad as African/Australians from all over the country are clamouring to be a part of the action.
The measure was taken after a busload of Zambian/Australian players spent about 70 hours travelling a 5400km round trip from Perth to play at Angle Park last year.
“We had to make a decision when they arrived as a complete team from Perth,’’ Arsene Iribuka, who is tournament co-ordinator with the African Communities Council of SA, said.
“They could play but others (teams) wanted them to be kicked out last year.
“But how could you after they made such a long journey to play.
“Some of our players that have played at the tournament like Awer have actually gone on to play at the international level, some now play in the A-League,” Iribuka said.
“Thiel Iradukunda is another that has played here at the tournament last year, he has just won a scholarship with Western United (in the A-League).”
Iribuka said the tournament is about much more than soccer.
“This year we’re also having African food and we’ve got more control over what we can sell,’’ he said
“We’re trying to add lots more culture to the event outside of football.”