African Cup of Nations

It's well worth checking out Brian Oliver's blogging for The Guardian on the African Cup of Nations. You can also hear him on the Guardian's bi-weekly Football Weekly podcasts.

They're as much travel log as football reports and provide a wonderful glimpse into the cultural context of the tourney. He's covered seven of these across the continent so this is no hippy grad student with a rucksack marveling at the wonders of Africa. He's battling a severe case of the shits, stolen passports and phones, horrible press box conditions and the general organizational chaos you'd expect from a corrupt, war-ravaged region of the world. But he's also drunk Campari with a local chief after an exhibition match in a remote village and he's clearly having the time of his life while describing a Cup that full of some fantastic, goal-laden football.

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