Four of the leading contenders in Africa’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers remain rudderless less than a month away from the start of the road to 2010.

The Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia are all among the favourites for a place in the finals in South Africa in two years’ time but find themselves scampering for a coach with their opening group qualifiers four weekends away.

Media reports say the Ivorians are talking to Jean Tigana, the former France international whose origins are African but has never worked on the continent before.

Last month the Ivorian Football Federation decided they would no longer need the services of the German Uli Stielike, even though he had helped them through an unbeaten, and frankly impressive, run in the qualifiers for the 2008 African Nations Cup finals in Ghana.

Tigana, 52, last worked at Besiktas more than a year ago but has been linked with a number of jobs since. Born in Mali, Tigana’s managerial career has also taken him to Fulham in England and to a championship winning spell with Monaco in Ligue 1.

Once appointed he would have just a few weeks to prepare for the opening qualifier against Mozambique in Abidjan on June 1, on paper an easy-looking tie but in reality a potential banana skin for the highly-fancied Elephants.

Tunisia were due to name Jacques Santini as their new coach earlier this week but that has been put on hold because of a sticking point over who is going to pay his tax bill once ensconced in the job.

Newspaper reports on Monday said the Tunisian Football Federation has twice met Santini in Paris but the proposed contract had still to be signed.

As time runs out before Tunisia open their qualifying campaign at home to Burkina Faso on June 1, Santini’s appointment could be delayed as his agents and Tunisian officials quibble over 5,000 euros a month the coach wants to help pay his tax bill.

Santini is to receive a basic salary of 33, 000 euros a month, as well as housing and transport allowances and frequent free flights back to France, according to the state-run La Presse newspaper.

He is set to replace another Frenchman Roger Lemerre. The Tunisian Football Federation had first sought to replace him with the Etoile Sahel coach Bertrand Marchand but their negotiations broke down over his contract.

Morocco have twice postponed a planned announcement of the successor to Frenchman Henri Michel, who was fired after their first round exit at the Nations Cup finals in Ghana in January.

In March they were due to choose between six local coaches but cancelled a planned news conference. Last Thursday they again called off the previously-scheduled unveiling of the coach and have still to shed any light on who will take charge of their first World Cup qualifier against Ethiopia in Casablanca on May 31.

Lemerre, who has just ended a six-year spell in Tunisia, is the hot favourite with Morocco’s press reporting numerous flights in and out of Casablanca’s Mohamed V airport in recent weeks.

Senegal, who have a tough opener against Algeria in Dakar on May 31, have just received FIFA’s permission to overhaul the leadership of their football federation and would presumably seek to get those structures sorted out first before looking to employ a new high profile coach.

Henryk Kasperczak, the former Polish World Cup campaigner, quit during the Nations Cup finals in Ghana and his assistant Lamine Ndiaye took charge of the last match in the tournament against South Africa. But there is no word on who leads the Lions of Teranga later this month.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters

PHOTO: Former Besiktas coach Jean Tigana wearing a T-shirt with the words: “Kids, We believed. We won the Cup for You” after his team won the Turkish Cup in Izmir May 3, 2006. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas

A disaffected relationship between a coach and his employers would ordinarily lead to a end of that relationship, either through resignation or dismissal.

In Cameroon, however, it is not that simple. A web of entanglement between the state and football means we’ve arrived at the ridiculous situation where the national coach Otto Pfister has been effectively handed divorce papers but continues in his job.

The Cameroon Football Federation recently decided it no longer wants anything to do with the German coach, but they are not able to fire him.

Pfister was employed last November as coach of the team to replace Jules Nyongha, even though the local had successfully qualified Cameroon for the 2008 African Nations Cup.

The decision to hire a new coach, even though the team seemed to be performing well, was taken by both the federation and the country’s sports ministry. But because the sports ministry pays the salary of the coach, the final choice of Pfister was made by government as opposed to the Federation.

The choice of Pfister was not accepted by the Federation, who publicly stated its objection as the coach arrived in Yaoundé for contract discussions with the sports ministry.

In the end, though, political pressure on Federation president Mohamed Iya was such that he dropped his objections, and Pfister went on to take Cameroon to a surprise place in the Nations Cup final, where they lost to Egypt.

Now that the celebrations have fizzled out, and in spite of the Nations Cup achievement, the Federation wants Pfister out. But because they don’t directly employ him, they can’t fire him. So, perhaps for the first time in soccer, they have divorced the coach instead.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters

PHOTO: Cameroon coach Pfister celebrates a goal against Ghana in the African Nations Cup semi-final in Accra, February 7, 2008. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

The match-up between Al Ahli and Zamalek is arguably one of the world’s biggest footballing fixtures. The Cairo derby not only divides a city but virtually the entire 72-million strong Egyptian nation, few of whom are ambivalent about either club.

Indeed, the clash between two titans spills over into the rest of the Arab world, where more millions follow the clash with almost as much passion as the Egyptians.

The two clubs meet again on Friday at the Cairo International stadium, but this year the traditional edge that characterises the clash is gone because of the great variance of form between the pair.

Traditionally, Al Ahli and Zamalek tussle virulently for the title and the derby matches often prove decisive in the championship chase. This year Al Ahli are runaway league leaders and on the verge of yet another title, a record 33rd. Zamalek are nowhere near the front runners, stuck 17 points off the pace in fourth place in the premier league standings.

Such has been the escape of the fizz around this clash that the Egypt Football Association decided to dispense with their usual policy of bringing in a foreign referee to handle the derby.

Usually the match officials are brought in from Italy, France, Spain, Germany or England, who dispatched Uriah Rennie to Cairo in 2003. But because Zamalek are so far off the title chase, the FA suggested a local be given the rare honour of officiating Friday’s game.

To put things simply, Al Ahli and Zamalek represents a match-up between the disparate levels of Egyptian life. Zamalek are seen as aristocrats of the domestic game, taking their name from the pricey piece of island real estate in the Nile where Cairo’s well-heeled live. Ironically, their club headquarters are on the other side of the river bank while Al Ahli’s club grounds lie nestled firmly on the exclusive island. Both clubs, if they are honest, are reserved for the cream of society and membership of their expansive facilities are far out of the reach of the common man.

But there are substantial bragging rights still at stake,as well as the not too minor detail of continued employment for the two coaches. Al Ahli’s Manuel Jose is called the King of Egypt’ for his all-conquering role with Al Ahli in recent years but their failure to win a third successive African Champions League title last November saw the fans turn on him for the first time.

Zamalek appointed Dutchman Ruud Krol to the post at the start of the season, a returnto the job he previously held a decade earlier. But the former Dutch international has not delivered.

Friday’s encounter is the 101st meeting in the league between the two teams, with 35 wins for Al Ahli, 25 for Zamalek and the other 40 games drawn. This statistic goes back to the start of the Egypt league after World War II but the rivalry extends back almost a century now to when the clubs were first formed.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters

Toronto-born, of Jamaican and Filipino descent, Jonathan de Guzmán is a veritable citizen of the world, and even more so after this month receiving his Dutch passport.

The Feyenoord midfielder is a prodigious talent who should be picked for the Dutch under-21 side in the next month and may even make it the Olympic Games in Beijing later this year.

For several years now, his native Canada have been trying to get him to commit to their cause, where Jonathan’s elder brother Julian is already a regular. But the younger De Guzman was steadfast in his desire to obtain the nationality of the Netherlands and possibly someday play alongside the likes of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie.

His case mirrored the unsuccessful bid of Salomon Kalou, when he was at Feyenoord. Kalou went through a lengthy legal process in a bid to win a Dutch passport and had the support of national coach Marco van Basten, who wanted him for Oranje’s 2006 World Cup squad.

In so doing, Kalou ignored the appeals of his own brother, Bonaventure Kalou, then captain of the Ivory Coast side. The younger Kalou was eventually denied Dutch nationality, by which time it was too late to play for the Ivorians at the World Cup in Germany. But less than a year later, once he had moved to Chelsea, any thoughts of going Dutch had long evaporated and Kalou is now a highly valued member of the Ivorian team, ironically taking the place of his brother in the recent African Nations Cup finals squad.

But that is an aside. Back to the De Guzmans. When Jonathan does put on a Dutch shirt, he and his brother will join a rare list of siblings capped by different countries.

I know of a few others and want to find out if you might help produce a definitive list.

Currently Manfred Kizito plays for Rwanda and his brother Nestory for Uganda, where they both hail from. Manfred was offered a passport by Rwanda after he went to play club soccer there.

In 1996, Lito, full name José Carlos Fernandes Vidigal, played for Angola at the Nations Cup finals in South Africa. He was Angolan-born but had been brought up in Portugal, and played at the top level there with Belenenses.

He was one of five brothers, one of whom was a lot better and quickly snapped up by the Portuguese. Jose Luis Vidigal was also born in Angola but moved to Portugal after independence at the age of two. He was a member of the Portugal side that reached the semifinals at the Euro 2000 and now plays at Livorno in Italy’s Serie A.

Earlier in February, the Olympique Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda played for France A in a goalless draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Marbella. Although not a full international, it was remarkable encounter in the sense that Mandanda’s younger brother Parfait kept a clean sheet at the other end.

Both brothers were born in Kinshasa but brought up in France. Steve, now 22, has come through most of France’s junior age group level teams while 18-year-old Parfait is on the books at Girondins Bordeaux.

I know that Djibril Cisse’s father was an international for the Ivory Coast but that opens up another list.

So how many siblings capped for rival international countries do you know. Or are there other father-and-son combinations who played for different countries at international level? If you know of any, please let us know via the comments below.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters

PHOTO: Feyenoord’s Jonathan de Guzman celebrates a goal against Wisla Krakow in the UEFA Cup in Rotterdam, December 13, 2006. REUTERS/Michael Kooren.

There must have a universal roar when Uganda’s Revenue Authority suffered a 2-0 home defeat in the African Champions League at the weekend.

The ‘tax collectors’, as they are known, surely engender little affection. They were beaten 2-0 by ZESCO United of Zambia in Kampala in a first round, first leg tie.

I have a few colleagues who support Tottenham Hotspur but I am left to wonder what kind of footballing masochists would want to support a team run by the revenue service. That also raises the question, is there no better way to spend the taxpayer’s money in Uganda than bank-rolling a football team?

Yet, according to the Ugandan media, they do have fans. In fact, so incensed were some of them that police had to step in protect their coach Frank ‘Video’ Anyau after the lost to their Zambian opponents.

Beating up the coach to express your frustration at your team’s defeat is common practice in Africa. It is a terrible blight on the game, notably in Nigeria where oftentimes both premier league players and coaches are laid into by supporters.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters

Frederic Kanoute was declared winner of last Friday’s African Footballer of the Year award, but the Malian is also the unfortunate loser in what reports and sources say was a serious abuse of power.

Confederation of African Football insiders say Didier Drogba garnered more votes and was due to win for a second successive year.

However, Drogba says he refused to leave the African Nations Cup to attend the award ceremony and Kanoute was handed the award instead. CAF deny this.

It is tragic for Kanoute really because if a detailed analysis is made of achievements in 2007, he probably deserved the accolade anyway.

The award is voted for by coaches from Africa’s 53 member countries although in past years less than 50 percent have returned their ballots.

The award has become a farce, a far cry from its origins and the strict accountability it had for decades.

Drogba says a high ranking CAF official called to say that if the Chelsea striker did not make the award ceremony he would be dumped as winner.

There is no reason to doubt him, but CAF deny such a call was made.

Drogba did not see the point of spending a day travelling to and from his team’s training base in Ghana’s Takoradi to Lome in neighbouring Togo where the awards had been scheduled.

CAF battle at the best of times to get nominees to attend the gala because so many are based in Europe and find it hard to get time off from their clubs.

CAF thought it would be clever to host the ceremony during the Nations Cup where all the nominees would be in action. But then they decided to hold it in Lome instead of Ghana’s capital Accra, against good sense.

The credibility of the award is dying a rapid death.

“CAF has the right to make any changes it wants,” said CAF communications director Suleiman Habuba in a TV interview this week.

So the coach’s vote is a farce then?

The award was started in 1970 by the magazine ‘France Football’, which ensured a proper plebiscite of representatives from each African country for more than two decades.

France Football sadly dropped the award just over 10 yeas ago, leaving CAF to take it over.

At first CAF used to poll its committee members to determine the winner and then came up with the idea of enlisting the coaches a few years ago.

Sporadically they have published the results but there has been a scent of skullduggery around the poll for some time now.

That scent is now a stench if the reports are true. Pity poor old king Kanoute. He deserved a lot better.

Mark Gleeson is covering the African Nations Cup in Ghana for Reuters. Click here for our site devoted to the finals 

PHOTO: Mali’s Kanoute holds his 2007 African Footballer of the Year award in Lome, Feb. 2  REUTERS/Luc Gnago

The African Nations Cup is growing too big for its own good, if the chaos surrounding the organisation in Ghana at the start of this year’s event is anything to go by.

With a larger cast of internationally recognisable stars and the teams improving in quality, the Nations Cup is now much more than just Africa’s premier sporting event; it commands considerable interest worldwide.

The supporting cast around the event gets larger with each passing edition — the officials, the supporters, the journalists, the agents and those with commercial interest in Africa’s top event.

The title sponsors alone had 1,700 guests for the opening match, several hundred flown in from other African countries. The media numbers have now passed the 1,000 accreditation mark and the phalanx of agents and business people now dealing in the African game seemingly doubles with every tournament.

Throw into that mix the fact that Ghana’s proximity to many of the participating nations means there are considerable number of fans on hand too. The Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Mali, even Senegal have large bands of travelling support.

Ghana is bursting at the seams, its infrastructure barely able to handle the tournament.

Hotels are at premium and some proprietors are unashamedly profiteering, with rooms being offered for as much as US$300 per night. Telecommunications are heaving under the strain and the pure size of the Nations Cup circus looks close to impossible for the local organisers to manage.

Many teams have had to endure arduous journeys to their end destination and then arrived at hotels that are sub-standard. Defending champions Egypt went through a series of comically incompetent blunders before arriving in Kumasi. They took a single look at their hotel and promptly set about finding better accommodation.

Ghana has built four impressive stadiums for the event but tournaments require much more. Take this from Ghana coach Claude Le Roy, who slammed the state of the pitch after his side’s 2-1 win over Guinea on Sunday:

“The first thing is not the quality of the armchair in the VIP room but it is the quality of the pitch and in more than 20 years in Africa, it’s the worst pitch I’ve ever seen in my career,” he said of the field at the Ohene Djan stadium.

If one of Africa’s larger economies is battling so, how will Angola, still ravaged after decades of civil war, cope in 2010 when they host the event for the first time?

Mark Gleeson is covering the African Nations Cup in Ghana for Reuters. See our main soccer site for full coverage.

PHOTO: A Ghana supporter in a mask is seen before the opening match against Guinea in the African Nations Cup in Accra, January 20, 2008. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

This month’s African Nations Cup finals will be filled with players from the top clubs of Europe, among them giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Benfica, Liverpool, Chelsea and Olympique Lyon.

Increasingly dominating too are coaches from outside the continent. In Ghana this month, three-quarters come from Europe and South America with just four from Africa: Angola, Sudan, Zambia and defending champions Egypt.

The influence of European coaches has been felt since the early days of the tournament over half a century ago now. In the 25 previous tournaments, 13 titles have been won by teams under the tutelage of European and South American coaches, just ahead of 12 titles garnered by locals.

Three past winners are in the field in Ghana, where the 26th edition of the Nations Cup will get underway on Jan. 20.

Egypt return with ex-international Hassan Shehata as they seek to defend the crown they won on home soil in 2006. Celebrations of that victory were diminished by the very public confrontation Shehata endured with Mido when the striker refused to leave the pitch after being substituted in the semi-final.

The temperamental Mido called his coach a “donkey” in a dramatic pitch side spat that served only to underline the stereotype that star players from top European clubs will only take seriously a coach of similar stature, and that Africa’s top coaching talent has little chance of breaking through at national team level.

For decades, football associations have looked northwards for coaching guidance and, as a result, locals are often shunted aside to make way for big-name imports.

Nigeria, for example, made it to the semi-finals in Egypt some 24 month ago under Austin Eguavoen but despite that achievement he is now relegated to the role of an assistant to Berti Vogts.

Benin and Cameroon has also sidelined the local coaches who ensured their qualification for Ghana, employing German replacements instead on the eve of the finals.

Ghana coach Claude LeRoy, who has coached more Nations Cup games than any other, is a former Nations Cup winner, achieving success with Cameroon 20 years ago.

The colourful Frenchman has been critical of many of his compatriots who have sat on the benches of African football teams over the years. LeRoy’s particular beef is with what he calls “Club Med coaches”, those who base themselves at home and travel only to Africa in and around matches.

This was the policy adopted by the German Winnie Schafer (among many others) when he was in charge of Cameroon. He had a logical argument, insisting his work would be better served by staying home in Germany where access to most of his European-based regulars was easier. But the counter argument was that he never got to see, work with and develop locally-based talent in the domestic leagues.

Dutchman Arie Haan and Frenchman Henri Michel are two others who fall into this category but Michel, like Schafer, can point to considerable success in African football over the years.

Cameroon won the Nations Cup with Schafer four years ago and Michel took the Ivory Coast to the 2006 finals as well as a debut at the World Cup finals in Germany.

Mark Gleeson will be covering the African Nations Cup finals in Ghana for Reuters. Check out our coverage at the main soccer site here.

PHOTO: Nigeria coach Berti Vogts instructs his team during their friendly against Switzerland in Zurich, November 20, 2007. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer

South Africa should be feeling pretty confident after passing its first big World Cup test but the uninspiring form of the national team is getting a lot of people anxious.

The 2010 World Cup organisers were given a resounding thumbs-up after the preliminary draw in Durban on November 25, the first official event ahead of a tournament that starts in some 30 months’ time.

But the enthusiasm has been clouded by growing pressure to deliver a team that will prove competitive in 2010 and provide as big a catalyst for mass public support as the South Korean side did in 2002 and the Germans achieved 18 months ago.

Danny Jordaan, the local organising committee’s chief executive officer, often voices fears that even if the 2010 event is superbly organised and proves incident free, its success will be largely judged on how big a party it becomes. Without a national team creating momentum with positive results, the whole experience might prove a damp squib.

Jordaan was the prime mover in getting Carlos Alberto Parreira to sign as South Africa coach in January. The Brazilian World Cup winner is being paid more in a month than South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki earns in a year and the debate over his salary (US$250 000 monthly) is aired regularly, particularly when results are disappointing.

That has meant quite often of late, with South Africa dropping down to 77 in FIFA’s world rankings this year after winning just five out of 14 matches.

Admittedly there have been some stiff ties with friendlies away at world champions Italy and against Uruguay, Scotland and the United States. It is all part of Parreira’s philosophy that to prepare a side for the 2010 World Cup they have to play regularly against thee world’s best. ‘Bafana Bafana’ have a growing list of friendlies lined up against top teams over the next year, including the French and the Dutch.

Unusually for a host nation, South African will also gain further experience in competitive matches. The qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup double up as African Nations Cup qualifiers, so in order to be at Angola 2010, ‘Bafana Bafana’ must take part. That could prove to be beneficial in getting the players battle hardened.

Next month they also compete at the Nations Cup finals in Ghana. Parreira has picked a young side with the focus firmly on 2010 but while many do support his vision of calmly building before 2010, many others are impatient for success.

PHOTO: South Africa’s coach Carlos Alberto Parreira reacts during a friendly against Swaziland at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, March 13, 2007. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

South Africa moves firmly into world football’s spotlight over the next days as the first formal event ahead of the 2010 World Cup takes place in the coastal resort city of Durban.

The preliminary draw for the finals is held in the city on Sunday, the first opportunity for the country to prove its potential as upcoming hosts (we will have live coverage of the draw over at the main soccer site, so check back for the draw as it happens).

The city was chosen because of the gargantuan size of its International Convention Centre, which has previously played hosts to a bevy of international summits, including a Commonwealth Heads of Government event.

Durban is bedecked in the official orange World Cup livery that will surely dominate the South Africa landscape over the next 30 months and there are some 3,000 visitors expected in the city over the next 48 hours.

It presents a decent-sized test for organisers and volunteers, new to the scale of a sports event of the magnitude of the World Cup.

It is also an opportunity to show what the South African Local Organising Committee promise will be a “unique African experience” for visitors.

What exactly they mean is unclear but the draw is far from an absorbing event. An endless succession of country names being drawn from glass bowls on a giant stage is being dressed up with dance and music in what is essentially a made-for-television spectacular.

South Africa’s premier league has shifted its season classic, the Soweto derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates to Durban on Saturday.

Already the 50,000 tickets for the event are sold out. The atmosphere at the derby is often a sensory-tingling experience but both clubs, who traditionally dominate the local league, have been performing poorly so far this season.

Fans are fickle in Durban, as witnessed by a poor crowd of some 5,000 who bothered to pitch for an international between South Africa and Canada on Tuesday. After a run of poor results, Durbanites were not prepared to pay to watch their national team.

South Africa host two more FIFA events before the 2010 World Cup. Eight teams participate in the 2009 Confederations Cup and there will also be the finals draw in December 2009, the venue for which is still to be confirmed.

PHOTO: FIFA President Sepp Blatter smiles during a news conference in Durban November 23, 2007, ahead of Sunday’s preliminary draw for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings