The build-up to the tournament, which kicks off on January 9, will see a number of teams in the Premier League and other top european leagues lose key players in the middle of the domestic season .
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Liverpool are likely to feel the effects of AFCON, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah set to represent Senegal and Egypt respectively
It ’ randomness led to some questions about whether players will carry on playing for their club rather of their country with Watford star Emmanuel Dennis a reported doubt to represent Nigeria at the tournament .
meanwhile, former West Ham striker Sebastian Haller reacted to a journalist asking if he ’ five hundred pick Ajax over representing the Ivory Coast, suggesting players from european nations wouldn ’ metric ton be asked questions like this .
The questions african players are being asked seaport ’ triiodothyronine sat good with Arsenal legend Ian Wright, who believes the nature of the doubting is ‘ completely tinged in racism. ’
“ Is there always a tournament more disrespect than the Africa Cup of Nations ? ” Wright said on Instagram .
Instagram @ wrightyofficial
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Wright has earned praise for these comments, including from Cameroon icon Samuel Eto’o
On the media coverage around AFCON, he added : “ There is no greater honor than representing your nation. The coverage is completely tinged with racism .
“ We played our Euros [ Euro 2020 ] across ten-spot countries in the middle of a pandemic and there ’ s no issue at all. But Cameroon, a single nation hosting a tournament, is a problem .
“ There are players getting asked if they will be honouring the call-ups to their home teams. Imagine if that was an England player representing the Three Lions. Can you imagine the furor ? ”
Iheanacho, who ’ s due to represent Nigeria in Cameroon, believes this is an opportunity for all the nations to show the world what they can do.
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Iheanacho has 38 caps for Nigeria, who made the semi-finals of the last AFCON in 2019
He told talkSPORT : “ We need to keep doing what we ’ re doing and do our best and keep showing the earth that Africa deserves more and there are more opportunities for well footballers over there .
“ Our rival needs to be looked at a well but I think we need to prove with our play that our competition is underrated by doing extraordinary things on the pitch, by scoring goals, by performing very well so when we do that it will speak for itself. ”
But Simon Jordan challenged Wright ’ sulfur claims and insist these questions are merely being asked as AFCON 2021 is taking set in the center of the domestic season and not in the summer .
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Jordan took Wright to task for his criticism of coverage of AFCON
He said on White and Jordan : “ Racism is a subject that needs to be attended to and when racism occurs it needs to be dealt with and needs to be squashed and most sane-minded people would want to see that and see that manifest itself .
“ When you start hearing people like Ian Wright make overtures and observations about tournaments being tinged or people ’ south responses to players going away to play in a tournament that lands in the middle of a season – you ’ re not comparing and contrasting by rights, Ian.
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“ You ’ re trying to make a point on a very sensitive discipline and what you do when making points like that is you discredit the idea of racism where it legitimately exists and needs to be removed .
“ A tournament played in the center of a season, compare it to the european Championship in the summer, when players aren ’ triiodothyronine being demanded things from their domestic paymasters .
“ Compare the World Cup [ in 2022 ] – okay we know it ’ sulfur in November but the season is being curtailed. If the Africa Cup of Nations want to get into negotiations with the Premier League and the leagues around the ball to be able to curtail their leagues they can have that conversation. ”