Afcon

[Mase]

The tournament runs from 21 December until 18 January.

We've only got Marmoush and Aït Nouri (bit of a piss take as he's been injured for us - but O'Reilly is far better anyway).

Liverpool will lose Salah and Rags Bryan Mbeumo, which will be great. Arsenal interestingly don't have one player that will go..

[nottsblue]

Another utter dogshit tournament. Devoid of any real quality

[stupot]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

[Mase]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

This season's surprise package, fourth-placed Sunderland will be the worst affected team by far by Afcon 2025 with seven players due to leave.

They are Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra, Mozambique full-back Reinildo, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore and DR Congo pair Arthur Masuaku and Noah Sadiki.

The majority of them are first-team regulars, with 50 Premier League appearances between them this season.

Lovely stuff

[nottsblue]

Sunderland are losing about 9 players and we play them New Years Day

This season's surprise package, fourth-placed Sunderland will be the worst affected team by far by Afcon 2025 with seven players due to leave.

They are Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra, Mozambique full-back Reinildo, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra, Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore and DR Congo pair Arthur Masuaku and Noah Sadiki.

The majority of them are first-team regulars, with 50 Premier League appearances between them this season.

Lovely stuff

Wouldn't surprise me if they are praying for snow and try and postpone the game

[Im_Spartacus]

Interesting to see Arsenal have no players - I think since Yaya pretty much that was the case for us also, and seems to be a philosophy Arteta has picked up from Pep about avoiding African players.

I guess Sunderland and other promoted teams have to cut their cloth accordingly, and African players' value is likely reflected in the fact they will fuck off for a month at a key time of year - I wonder what happens in the French league, as I guess that gets decimated in Jan.

It's a wierd conflict that raises questions about the motivations behind AFCON - I get that it's the financial engine for many African football associations, broadcast rights, sponsorship and host-country investments. AFCON revenue helps fund entire football ecosystems, youth development, refereeing systems, stadium maintenance and national team operations. But lets not also hide that in many countries half of that money is going straight in someone's back pocket.

But the paradox is that if Europe’s biggest clubs avoid signing african players, this means that there's less exposure / youth engagement when kids dont see 'people like us' playing for the likes of Barcelona / Real Madrid / Arsenal who have none, Bayern / Liverpool / City who have 1 notable player.

Bigger picture, for development of football, it seems to be the strategic equivalent of shooting themselves in the foot as African needs these superstars at clubs like Real, Barca etc, but I can't remember when it's ever really happened in the last 20 years the possible exceptions would be Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto'o who were genuine 1st team players, but this was 10-15 years ago

African players seem to be are disproportionately concentrated in clubs one tier below the ultra-elite, or in elite clubs that are willing to take the short-term hit for extraordinary upside (Liverpool being the only real example I guess with Mane, Keita, Salah)