AFCON 2023 - Joseph-Antoine Bell: "As a Cameroonian, there are reasons to be worried"

Joseph-Antoine Bell, we are two months away from AFCON 2023 in Côte d’Ivoire. Given the strength of the teams involved, are we about to see one of the best AFCONs in history?

My experience tells me that every upcoming tournament is billed as the best in history, even if the supposed main players, the ones you see at the very end, may be different. But every tournament is organised to be better than the last one, with teams prepared to win it. Football doesn't start with the footballers, and it is important that everyone who comes before the footballers does their job properly. The success of the tournament depends above all on their work.

Let's talk about Cameroon's Group C, nicknamed the "group of death", with Senegal, the holders, Gambia and Guinea…

I wouldn't call it the "group of death", because after all, in an AFCON with 24 teams, there will probably be no more than one casualty. I think we'll have one "dead" and three qualifiers in this group. There will be a fight to claim one of those three places.

It is the only group where all four teams reached the knockout phase at the last AFCON…

The only death, given the quality of the four teams who got through the group stage at AFCON 2021, is that one team will be extremely disappointed. Not about going out, but about doing worse than in the previous edition. That is guaranteed (laughs). So yes, in that sense there will indeed be a death in Group C.

What are Cameroon's chances at this AFCON, given their latest games in October?

I won't venture to make precise predictions yet, for the simple reason that a lot can still happen in every squad between November and the start of the tournament in January. Serious, credible predictions can only be made once the teams have played at least one match at this AFCON, or even after the group stage. Only then can teams be judged on their true consistency or on their potential.

Are you worried about Cameroon, who have struggled since Song took charge, with a record of 4 wins and 7 defeats?

Today, with the stance I have as a pundit at RFI, I'm relaxed, I don't back any team, I back the game. Now, if I look at it as a Cameroonian, I have reasons to be worried. Yes, absolutely.

"It's hard to have a champion come out of nowhere"

Worried despite that typically Cameroonian mindset which assumes Cameroon are always strong when a tournament kicks off…

Good thing you mention it. You don't win by being bad (laughs). That's why I said we will judge on the pitch. If they are good when the time comes, the past no longer counts. You win with your present. But it's true that you prepare so that you can show that winning face. What matters most is how they arrive at the tournament and what they do at that point. There are people who think about the tournament ahead, there are those who make resolutions and those who project themselves, imagining the message and the ways of getting that message across to the players to build something that leads to winning.

Which teams look best equipped to win the AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire?

It's generally the same ones. You have to tell yourself one thing: it's hard to have a champion come out of nowhere. It happens from time to time. Senegal recently joined the circle of champions. Which makes it even more exclusive rather than widening it (laughs). The chances of a new team joining the champions are getting slimmer. For the favourites at this AFCON, I'd say Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, and Nigeria to a lesser degree. There will be teams who can play spoiler. Gambia have what it takes to be a serious spoiler.

Fortunately, the first round serves to get you into the round of 16. In reality, you have to understand that the first round is much less important than before. In the sense that getting out of the first round doesn't really bring you closer to the final, as it used to. I think things have been made a little easier for everyone. You can boast about getting out of the first round, but in reality it wasn't difficult. Today the first round only eliminates 6 teams out of 24.

By Moustapha M. SADIO