The Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire to Nigeria, Kalilou Traore, says the Nigeria versus Côte d’Ivoire meeting in the 2024 AFCON final on Sunday will be a blessing for the two countries.
Mr Traore, who said this in an interview with journalists in Abuja, mentioned that hosting the AFCON tournament brought a good ambiance to the country.
The envoy, while unveiling the ‘AFCON Village’, set up to enable football enthusiasts to watch live matches of the competition, prayed that both countries succeed in the tournament.
The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly referred to as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, or simply AFCON or CAN, is the most prestigious men’s football competition in Africa.
AFCON, contested by national teams, is organized by the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) and was first held in February 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan.
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is hosting the 2024 AFCON, where the final sees the host Côte d’Ivoire taking on Nigeria in Abidjan on Sunday.
The tournament kicked off in Côte d’Ivoire on Jan. 13, to end on Feb. 11, with 24 countries seeking the continent’s most coveted football trophy.
According to Mr Traore, the 2024 AFCON is one of the best-organised tournaments and is a testament to the remarkable example of African solidarity and unity.
“We will be facing Nigeria; we, as the Embassy of Côte d’Ivoire in Nigeria, are happy. It is a blessing for us.
“We are the two finalists, and it gives us lots of opportunities to bring these two countries closer.
“No matter who will win the finals, the embassy will win because it is an occasion for us to develop fraternity, friendship, and business between our two countries.
“We, Côte d’Ivoire, have already achieved one of our major goals of the AFCON, which is to have good organisation.
“If we can win the tournament Cup in addition, it will be fun for us. But in a game, one will win, and the other will lose.”
He decried the practice by sports enthusiasts whereby they take sides wishing their preferred team wins competition as a “do or die affair,” advising people always to be ready for either a win or a loss.
He observed that the 2024 AFCON pulled surprises, saying, “you cannot predict anything; you can just pray, and then God will answer you in one way or another.”
“So, for this reason, we should be ready to accept the result. No matter which result it is, that will be good, also for our health.
“This is because unfortunately some people cannot support the tension and stress; even some people can die from it.
“We should not forget it is a game. At the end of the day, the winner and loser should embrace the outcome and be happy because they have reached the top level of this AFCON.
“We hope this final will also be very good. We call on every football enthusiast to support their team and be ready to accept the result, whatever it is.”
He expressed appreciation to God that people who went to Abidjan to be part of AFCON were happy, going by the signals being received from there.
“From the information from social media, this is one of the best AFCON tournaments ever organised, and we are happy and very proud of that.
“Actually, this is what the Côte d’Ivoire government wanted; to make the occasion a fraternity for Africans and also between Africans and all other parts of the world.
“We have never seen so many people coming into our country, not only for football but also to do business and tourism across our country, and we are very happy for that.
“This AFCON has shown most of the predictions failed, and this is also part of the game, surprise of competition and enhanced pleasure of the situation.
“Many teams were supposed to be at the finals; small countries came and went very far in this AFCON. Even Côte d’Ivoire, we started very badly, and now we are at the final.
“We did not predict this; we are not prophets, but we think God heard our prayers, and we are happy as the organizing country to be in the final,” Mr Traore said.
(NAN)
