South Africa coach Hugo Broos blasts lack of ‘AFCON vibe’ at Africa Cup in Morocco
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — South African coach Hugo Broos isn’t getting the usual feeling of the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Broos, who led Cameroon to the title in 2017 in Gabon and led South Africa to third place in 2023 in Ivory Coast, said on Sunday there was a lack of enthusiasm for the 35th edition of the tournament.
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“In Ivory Coast and Gabon, every second of the tournament it felt like we were in a tournament,” Broos said. “The people were – when we went with the bus to train – people were waving and they were with flags, and here you don’t see anything. So, I don’t know, but yeah, there’s no atmosphere, there’s no typical AFCON atmosphere. I don’t feel it here.”
The Belgian coach was speaking in Marrakech on Monday ahead of South Africa’s final group match against Zimbabwe. Bafana Bafana opened with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Angola in Marrakech, then lost 1-0 to Egypt in Agadir.
Egypt is already through to the round of 16 from Group B with a maximum of six points from two matches. It is followed by South Africa with three points while Angola and Zimbabwe have one point each.
Angola faces Egypt on Monday and the top two in each group progress, as do the best third-placed teams.
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The organizers struggled to fill the stadiums and the weather didn’t help. There was heavy rain every day of the tournament, except for Thursday when no matches took place during the Christian holiday of Christmas. Morocco is a predominantly Muslim country.
The tournament was originally scheduled for the summer, but was pushed back to the winter to avoid conflict with the new FIFA Club World Cup, played in the United States.
Even Morocco’s matches, which were all sellouts, featured empty seats and touts accused of buying tickets, frustrating fans’ efforts to gain access to the nearly 70,000-capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, where the home team plays all of its group matches.
Security at other stadiums has allowed fans in for free after kickoff in order to increase attendance. This led to fans without tickets waiting outside assuming they would be allowed in.
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“No one came to watch the South Africa-Angola match,” Broos said after criticizing the arrangements made for his team’s next match against Egypt. “It was chaos before the game… they blocked everyone, even those who had tickets. They couldn’t get into the stadium because there was a crowd of people who didn’t have tickets and were allowed in.”
Broos praised the “beautiful stadiums” – all nine were newly built or renovated for the tournament – but said the atmosphere at the 2025 Africa Cup was unusually “cool”.
“If they don’t let people into the stadium free, there won’t be anyone there,” he said. “No one comes to watch the South Africa-Zimbabwe match.”
Morocco is also co-organizer of the 2030 World Cup.
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AP at the African Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-cup-of-nations
