The new faces of African Football

This year's African Nations Cup (ANC) qualifiers threw up some shockers as a few of the continent's "stronger" sides failed to qualify. Topping the list are former winners; Egypt, Cameroun, Nigeria and South Africa. It is difficult to tell if this is a temporary blip or a changing of the guard. The latter three countries also failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup but did return for the 2010 event (for Egypt the World Cup has been a bridge too far since their last appearance in 1990).

I like to think of this as the emergence of a new breed of countries ready to shake up the existing paradigm. With Botswana and Niger making their debuts the stage is set for new stars to be born and maybe, just maybe it could be the year of the "Underdog". Add to the debutants, returnees Libya and Sudan to complete the list of unlikely qualifiers. This promises to be an emotional tournament for Libya after the recent turmoil in the country. It is left to be seen if they can reenact Iraq's feat of winning their continental championship in 2007 on the wave of the country's emotions after their going through war and turmoil.

Co-host Equatorial Guinea make a first appearance as well but it is Gabon, the other co-host who excite me currently. They recently won the African U-23 Olympic qualifiers for the London Olympics and can boast of the Aubameyang brothers who bring a Milan influence with Pierre-Emerick currently on loan to St Etienne from Milan and Willy having played in the Milan youth teams.

So what is in the way of stopping a "fresh face" from lifting the cup? The tournament still has a few of the "old guard". Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Morocco as past winners will be looking at some of the less fancied names and licking their lips. It all leads to an entertaining fiesta of continental football to look forward to. With no Nigeria, yours truly may be able to sit back and watch with no false expectations or disappointments.