AFCON changes will make life easier for African players, says Onazi

Trabzonspor midfielder Ogenyi Onazi, says shifting the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) from January/February to June/July will ease difficulties faced by players.

He also endorsed the new 24-team format of the tournament.

The Super Eagles player said the development is of massive advantage to Africans playing for European clubs.

“When you finish a [Nations Cup] game and if you finish before the finals, your [club] team has to give you a phone call and you need to come back immediately,” Onazi told BBC Sport.

“Even when we won the Afcon in 2013, my team called me immediately, saying that I should fly from South Africa down to the club because we have a Europa League game.

“I told them it’s not possible because we’d just won the tournament.

“I needed to go back to my country and try to see what we were going to do there – and then I’d come back.

“I’ve heard about experiences of other players too – they [clubs] don’t allow them to come.

“They just tell them when it’s like two to three days to the tournament and then they allow them to come – and this has been the difficulty.

“It’s another good innovative for some of those African countries that were not able to make it while it was 16 [teams] or so.

“Now they’ll have the opportunity to exhibit themselves because you never can tell…a little country will have some great talents but because they are not able to make it to the 16 you are not able to see those talents.

“But now they have an opportunity to come in, and for me it’s also good for their own development.”