World Cup Qualifying in Africa Starts with 7 Teams at ‘Home’ in Morocco During Stadium Upgrade Push 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
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World Cup Qualifying in Africa Starts with 7 Teams at ‘Home’ in Morocco During Stadium Upgrade Push 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)
Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe speaks during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP)

When World Cup qualifying starts in Africa on Wednesday, Morocco will be a hub of soccer action a year after the national team's historic run to becoming the continent’s first semifinalist.

Seven teams will play “home” games in Morocco over the next week, but Africa’s standout team will not be among them. Morocco’s first home game in qualifying for the 2026 tournament is in June.

Morocco has several stadiums of international standard — as befits a country preparing to co-host the 2030 World Cup — when much of the rest of Africa has none and needs a temporary home.

A strict policy by the Confederation of African Football since 2021 to drive construction and renovation of higher quality national stadiums has left 17 of 53 teams in action over the next week hosting games on neutral ground, far away from their fans at home.

It is “totally unacceptable,” CAF president Patrice Motsepe has said, that some members do not have a stadium that complies with standards to host international games for national and club teams.

So, Ethiopia opens Wednesday in the western Morocco port city of El Jadida hosting Burkina Faso about 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) from Addis Ababa.

Niger’s team will be about 2,200 kilometers (1,360 miles) from fans back home in Niamey — where it has not played since 2021 — when facing Tanzania at the 45,000-seat Stade de Marrakech on Saturday.

Also welcoming visiting teams in the next week are Egypt, Ivory Coast, Libya, Liberia, South Africa and Tanzania for games that do not involve the host country.

The Gambia team will travel about 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) to go to Tanzania for back-to-back games, first facing Burundi then staying for its own “home” game four days later against Ivory Coast.

“We are committed to ensuring that at least one quality national stadium in every country is built, where none currently exists,” CAF said in its annual report last year, adding the goal of “ensuring that our matches and competition are safe and healthy.”

Even at one of the best new stadiums in Africa — Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon — eight fans died in a crowd crush in January 2022 arriving for an African Cup of Nations game.

The CAF push for improved stadiums also aims to raise standards for players, with better playing and training surfaces, plus fans, sponsors and media.

Such a goal is typically achieved with state support and money in Africa where close ties often bind sports and political influence.

Motsepe, a South African mining magnate, has urged governments and heads of state to invest on visits to more than 30 of CAF's member federations.

“It is not a football problem but an infrastructure issue,” CAF said in a statement Wednesday. “That is why we need governments to partner with football to ensure that countries can play at home.”

Stadium building in Africa often means partnering with China, like the $500 million venue built in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to host the 2015 African Games.

In Niger, a delegation from the Chinese government met soccer and government officials in April about renovating the state-owned General Seyni Kountche Stadium. Niger has since had a military coup.

In Ethiopia, building a new national stadium in a project with a Chinese state construction firm has reportedly been delayed by rising costs.

FIFA pointed to success stories with its funding programs helping member federations in Liberia and Mauritania develop their stadiums, which are modestly sized rather than a 60,000-capacity project as in other countries.

Liberia’s president is soccer great George Weah, the former AC Milan forward who won the 1995 Ballon d’Or award. Weah is contesting a runoff election this week.

The aim is for more African teams to play true home games when the nine World Cup qualifying groups resume in June. Each group winner will advance to the 2026 tournament being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Already, progress has been made here — a number of countries are now playing at home,” CAF said. “Admittedly, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.”



Sinner, Alcaraz Headline ATP Finals with Djokovic Out

05 November 2024, Italy, Giaveno: Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner in action during a training session, ahead of Nitto ATP Finals tennis tournament. Photo: Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via ZUMA Press/dpa
05 November 2024, Italy, Giaveno: Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner in action during a training session, ahead of Nitto ATP Finals tennis tournament. Photo: Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via ZUMA Press/dpa
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Sinner, Alcaraz Headline ATP Finals with Djokovic Out

05 November 2024, Italy, Giaveno: Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner in action during a training session, ahead of Nitto ATP Finals tennis tournament. Photo: Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via ZUMA Press/dpa
05 November 2024, Italy, Giaveno: Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner in action during a training session, ahead of Nitto ATP Finals tennis tournament. Photo: Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via ZUMA Press/dpa

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are poised to add another entry into their rapidly developing rivalry when the ATP Finals open Sunday without any members of the Big Three for the first time in nearly a quarter century.
The top-ranked Sinner and No. 3 Alcaraz evenly split the year’s Grand Slam titles between them with two apiece and it would be fitting if the pair meet again in Turin, The Associated Press reported.
And since Alcaraz was overtaken by Alexander Zverev in the rankings this week, the Spaniard could be placed in the same round-robin group as Sinner.
The draw for the eight-man event is scheduled for later Thursday.
After the round-robin stage, the top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals.
The other qualifiers are: Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev.
The big name missing is that of defending champion Novak Djokovic, who withdrew on Tuesday due to an unspecified injury.
Not since 2001 has the finals been held without at least one of Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. This season also was the first since 2002 without at least one Grand Slam title for a member of that trio.
Djokovic has won the ATP Finals a record seven times. He beat Sinner for the title last year.
Federer, who announced his retirement in 2022, won the event six times after making his debut in 2002; Nadal, who is retiring after playing in the Davis Cup the week after finals, was the runner-up twice at the finals but never won it.
Sinner withdrew from last week’s Paris Masters due to a virus and showed up early in Turin for training.
“This is for me the main event of the end of the year,” Sinner said.
As an Italian, Sinner will be the main focus of attention in Turin.
It’s the first time that Sinner will be playing at home since it was announced before his US Open title that he had tested positive in two separate drug tests earlier in the year.
A decision to clear Sinner of wrongdoing was appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency in September and the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport is expected to make a final ruling on the case early next year.
Sinner opened this year by winning the Australian Open to become the first Italian man to win a Grand Slam singles title in nearly a half-century — since Adriano Panatta raised the French Open trophy in 1976.
Alcaraz then claimed the French Open and Wimbledon titles to raise his career total to four Grand Slams.
Sinner responded by winning the US Open.
Alcaraz won all three official meetings with Sinner this year and holds a 6-4 advantage in their career head-to-head rivalry. Last month, Sinner beat Alcaraz in the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
Zverev won in Paris last week and looks for a 3rd title at finals The only two players in the field to have won the finals are Zverev and Medvedev.
Zverev won in London in 2018 and in Turin in 2021; while Medvedev triumphed in 2020 — the final year the event was held in London.
Zverev enters in solid form coming off a title at the Paris Masters.
Fritz is looking to add another big result after his maiden Grand Slam final at the US Open; Ruud was a finalist in 2022; De Minaur is making his tournament debut; and Rublev is making his fifth straight appearance.
Biggest prize money on the men’s tour: $4.8 million If a player wins all five of his matches en route to the trophy, he will earn $4.8 million — the largest winner’s prize on the men’s tour.
That’s significantly more than what Sinner and Alcaraz earned for their victories at the US Open ($3.6 million) and Wimbledon (2.7 million pounds or $3.45 million) this year.