As the African Cup of Nations ends what has been a very, very poor quality tournament, I find it difficult to find any positives. The tournament started in chaos with the appalling attack on the Togo team, which ultimately led to their decision not to participate and now it looks like they will not be allowed to participate in the next 2 African Cups, an absolutely unbelievable decision from the badly run CAF. How could they expect Togo to carry on after what happened to them. The tournament was a farce from beginning to end.

Fair enough it started with a very entertaining game 4-4, you can’t complain about that but from then on it was downhill all the way to a very poor final. There was not one single match of any consequence, no outstanding play from any side and not one player stood out from the rest of the the mediocrity. All the big names were there but probably wished they were back at their clubs, they were pathetic. I really thought that this year an African side had a good chance of lifting the World Cup. On this evidence, not a snowball in hells’ chance.

The African continent has just staged the 2010 African Cup and made a real mess of it, they cannot afford to make a mess of the World Cup or they will never get the chance again. Algeria were a disgrace to the competition, in their semi-final with Egypt, the pitches were atrocious, the crowds were virtually non-existant and the referees, please don’t get me started on them. I am just pleased to get it out of the way and back to some real football.

The Arsenal v Man Utd game, on the other hand, was a proper football match, a fantastic spectacle, played with pace, energy and classy football. Nani has at last woken up and smelt the coffee. Rooney was a terror and the second goal was sublime. More on African Cup, World Cup, Euro 2012, Free Football Tips and New Football SMS Service