‘Everything is rigged in football’ – Metz boss Frederic Antonetti fuming after 1-1 draw with Lyon over AFCON timing
METZ boss Frederic Antonetti has slammed the ‘rigged’ timing of the Africa Cup of Nations as he stands to lose up to eight players to the tournament next month.
Antonetti fumed after seeing his relegation-threatened side draw 1-1 with Lyon on Wednesday.
Afcon was originally scheduled to take place last year but was pushed back to January 2022 following the Covid pandemic.
Attempts to host the tournament during the summer were thwarted after organisers decided the climate in Cameroon was not workable at that time of year.
: “Afcon takes seven or eight players from us. That’s enormous.
“It’s a rigged, distorted game. How can we have international competitions during national competitions? It’s not workable.
“I have nothing against Afcon, it’s a very good event, but you can’t remove that many players from a team. And we’re not the only ones.”
“When we built our squad, Afcon was set to be played in June but they’ve changed the rules.
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“When I say it’s rigged, everything is rigged in football.
“It’s a shame because everything is distorted and rigged and the Afcon is part of it, VAR is part of it, the pressure is part of it.”
Afcon’s January timing means African stars are set to play in two major tournaments in one year.
2022 is being rounded off by the winter World Cup in Qatar - scheduled to begin on November 21.
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