Africa corps weighs up cost

Depending on who in authority you listen to, Bryan Robson is either already the manager of Nigeria, will be soon enough, or it’ll never happen.

This level of confusion demonstrates the problem with clarity in African football. Should Robson, or anyone else for that matter, be categorically confirmed as the man to take the Super Eagles to the African Cup of Nations in January, his first task will be to get to grips with a provisional squad of 35 players selected by former/current/long-term caretaker manager Christian Chukwu.

Six of them play in the English premiership and will bid farewell to the English winter to head to Tunisia for up to six weeks in the new year. All in all, dozens of players are about to become embroiled in the biennial European club versus African country row.

Among them are several premiership players who have been key performers for their clubs this season, including Amdy Faye and Yakubu Aiyegbeni at Portsmouth, Jay-Jay Okocha at Bolton, and Geremi at Chelsea.

Already, the steam is coming out of Sam Allardyce’s ears. The Bolton manager even considered recruiting two more African players in an attempt to avoid losing his captain, Okocha. Allardyce thought Bolton’s games would be postponed if he had three players called up for international duty — but that rule does not apply.

‘We are going to lose Jay-Jay, our best player, for possibly six games and I can do nothing about it. Fifa told us that premiership games can’t be called off for call-ups to the African Cup of Nations. It’s a diabolical situation.

‘When we have qualifiers for the World Cup or European Championship, then premiership games are called off. But we have been told that won’t be allowed for the African Cup of Nations, so does that mean the premiership is regarded as more important than the African tournament?”

The harsh answer appears to be yes. That reality was confirmed on a chilly morning in Eltham, south-east London, when South Africa’s most prolific scorer explained why he has just taken the decision to retire from international football. Shaun Bartlett was 31 on Friday, his contract at Charlton Athletic expires at the end of the season, and he is worried that a disappearing act now will damage his chance of an extension.

‘It’s difficult for a player to leave their club at such a time,” he laments. ‘I have to make sure I am here in order to get a new contract. That’s my priority. That’s what people back home don’t realise. They keep saying I’m not patriotic or that I’m letting my country down, but in the end this is where I earn my living and this is what keeps my family alive.”

Returning to that issue of clarity in African football, Bartlett isn’t actually sure whether he is retired or not. He sent a letter to his federation but has had no reply, so he is awaiting the next squad announcement with interest. His mind is not for turning, though.

He was, he says, supposed to be excused the last Cup of Nations but the South African Federation reneged on an agreement not to pick him. He ended up going to the finals in Mali, injured himself in the first game, and was out for eight months. ‘The only way to avoid that scenario this time around is to retire from international football. It is something I had to do to save my club career.”

There is, Bartlett argues, too much pressure on players to try to please club and country, when never the twain shall meet. He has particular sympathy for the youngsters, who are torn between the honour of representing their people and the ambition to do their job as successfully as possible.

Bartlett is not the first, or last, to retire while still going strong domestically. (Cameroon’s Lauren did the same after the World Cup, as did Taribo West of Nigeria.) And he would not be the first, or last, to ‘unretire” after an African Cup of Nations, conveniently returning for a World Cup.

‘Never say never,” he muses, knowingly.

Sacrificing international status — temporarily if need be — will go on and on until the African Cup of Nations is reformed. Bartlett advocates two possibilities, either to make it a tournament for youngsters, or better still, to reschedule the whole shebang for summer.

‘There would be no need for players to pull out or retire, the competition would have more credibility, and more people would watch it because it would be at a time when there is no other football on television.”

This time, though, Bartlett has no option but to stick his feet up in south-east London and turn on the box. —