ACCRA: Downtown Accra is decorated with Go Ghana banners as this lively city of nearly 3 million people prepares for the start of the continent s most storied soccer tournament.
A million visitors are expected in the West African state for the African Cup of Nations, which began Sunday with a sold-out opener between the host nation – led by Chelsea s Michael Essien – and Guinea.
Ghana is looking for a fifth title, but is without inspirational skipper Stephen Appiah who is injured and expected to miss the entire three-week tournament.
Africa s biggest soccer festival is less popular with several European clubs that lose some of their top players to the tournament. Thirty-seven players from the English Premier league are participating in this year s contest.
Still, Confederation of African Football president Issa Hayatou said it was unlikely the timing of the tournament will change in the future.
Speaking at a joint conference with FIFA president Sepp Blatter Saturday, Hayatou said moving the tournament from January to June as is being requested by top European clubs would be the end of African football.
However, he said the biannual tournament could be rescheduled to odd-numbered years, so it never takes place on the same year as the World Cup.
We can change that. That we can do, he said.
Blatter said his organization had formed a strategic committee to investigate possibilities for change, and that its findings will be presented ahead of the next tournament in Angola in 2010.
Accra resident David Gaba, 47, a security guard at a city hotel, isn t looking that far ahead, keeping his focus on Sunday.
I know many people in Ghana are just interested in seeing us winning against Guinea tomorrow, Gaba said.
The tournament features 16 teams, with games being played in the cities of Accra, Kumasi, Temale and Sekondi. Ghana, whose last win came in 1982, is drawn in Group A alongside Guinea, Morocco and Namibia.
Two-time champion Nigeria, with stars such as Aiyegbini Yakubu and Obafemi Martins, will face Didier Drobga s Ivory Coast, Mali and Benin in Group B. Defending champion Egypt, with a record five titles, faces four-time Champion Cameroon in Group C. That group also includes Sudan and Zambia.
Teams in Group D are South Africa, Senegal, Tunisia and Angola.
Nearly 16,000 journalists have sought accreditation for the event, prompting chaotic and angry scenes at Accra s small accreditation center, with only a handful of staff dealing with hundreds of journalists jostling for position around impromptu wooden tables.
Police officers had to push back seemingly endless waves of shouting, finger-pointing journalists all waving accreditation letters and passports.
Several journalists complained of having been robbed during the melee.
The atmosphere in Ghana is building frenetically ahead of Sunday s game with dozens of traders along the roads of Accra running up to motorists, eagerly trying to sell Ghana flags and other memorabilia.
The last two tournaments were both won by the host – Egypt in 2006 and Tunisia four years ago – and confidence is high that this could by Ghana s year.
But Morocco and Guinea are tough opponents to start with.
Guinea has experience in defense with Celtic s Bobo Balde and flair in attack with the skillful, yet unpredictable, Pascal Feindouno of Saint-Etienne.
Morocco, which was runner-up to Tunisia in 2004, held France to a 2-2 draw at Stade de France in November, with Youssef Mokhtari and Youssef Hadji stretching France s defense with some tricky approach play.
