CAF headquarters in Cairo held the first ever African U-23 championship which will serve as a qualifier for the 2012 London football Olympics, Abeer Anwar reports Egypt fell in Group A with Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon and South Africa while Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria and Senegal made up a tougher Group B. The top three teams will qualify for the London 2012 Olympics while the fourth placed side will engage a team from Asia in a play-off. CAF and FIFA executive member Hani Abu Rida and CAF Secretary-General Hisham Al-Amrani conducted the draw. According to the CAF official website, the Confederation of African Football decided to turn the phase of Olympic qualifiers into an African U-23 championship. This means that the tournament will be held every four years and will fall in the year before the Olympics. The inaugural championship will be played from 26 November to 10 December 2011 in Egypt with Group A matches to be held at the Military Stadium. Group B games will take place in the Arab Contractor Stadium. The final and third and fourth place matches will be played on 10 December in Cairo International Stadium. Hazem El-Hawari, Egyptian Football Federation board member and supervisor of the Olympic team, said, "In general I am satisfied with the draw. It is fair enough and the two groups are of equal strength." Egyptian U-23 coach Hani Ramzi said he was pleased with the draw and had respect for all the teams in the group. "We have a good chance to realise our dream of qualifying for London but we have to work hard because there are no small teams in today's football. All teams have an equal chance and I always tell my players to keep in mind that the Egyptian national team was kicked out of the Africa Nations Cup by smaller teams although it is the title holder. We have to train well and we will do our best to to qualify for the London Olympics." Moatemed Gamal, the assistant coach, was optimistic about the draw saying, "It is a good draw for us as we escaped facing Morocco and Algeria in the first phase of the competition. This will lift the burden on the players as they will be more relaxed and not play under tension." South African Football Association CEO Robin Petersen, who was at the draw, told cafonline.com that it was a tough draw "and whoever we would have got in our group would have been equally tough because all eight teams are good. Sory Diabate, the vice president of the Cote d' Ivoire Football Federation, said it was an interesting draw which is bound to produce some fierce competition. "C�ïte d'Ivoire has the potential to do well in this championship. We however have a problem on our hands because during the qualifiers we had our Europe-based players coming for these games and l am not sure if we will get the players from Europe for the championship. If we don't get them we will have to make do with the local players but our chances of making it to London will increase if we get our Europe-based players. Then, we will have a very good team." Nigeria were the first African side to win gold at the Olympics in 1996 and their coach Austin Eguavoen admits they face a tough task to qualify for the 2012 event."The draw is interesting. Like I have always said there are no minnows in African football," Eguavoen told BBC Sport on Saturday."This is only a pointer that we should begin preparations in earnest. It would also give us a direction on the choice of Africa friendly matches to pursue. But honestly it's an interesting draw." Cameroon are the other African side to have won gold at the Olympics and they achieved their feat in Sydney in 2000. Morocco's Dutch coach Peam Febreck was critical of the timing of the U-23 African qualifications saying that the date chosen was wrong and that such an event should have taken place in January when all the big teams are off celebrating the New Year. As such, Febreck said, the professional players have the opportunity to join the U-23 teams "and make our chances better to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics."
