{"id":23772,"date":"2011-12-29T16:27:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T16:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/"},"modified":"2011-12-29T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T16:27:01","slug":"kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Posted On Thursday, 29th December 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Kuffour<\/a><\/p>\n

Sammy Kuffour<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ex Ghana international Samuel Osei-Kuffour insists the absence of traditional heavyweights in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations takes nothing out of the competition as feared.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rather, according to the former Bayern Munich defender, the emergence of less fancied sides in the biennial\u00a0showpiece is testament of paradigm shift in the African game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat countries like Nigeria, Cameroun and Egypt did not make it to the 2012 Nations Cup showed that other nations are working to demystify the super powers of the game in Africa,\u201d Kuffour said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to respect teams that qualified for the 2012 Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon because they are good to have made it to the last 16 in the continent. If Nigeria did not qualify, they have to accept it in good faith because from 1984 to1992, Ghana did not qualify for the Nations Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Nigeria needs to do is to put themselves together and begin to rebuild and now that they have Stephen Keshi as the coach, I believe they can get back to their form again.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhana could not qualify for the 2004 Nations Cup but made it to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. I think this can also happen to Nigeria that if they don\u2019t feature in 2012 Nations Cup, they can qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuffour, meanwhile, disclosed that he was a Nigerian from Shagamu in Ogun State: \u201cIt is true that I came from Nigeria because my father is a Nigeria from Shagamu, but I was born and bred in Ghana. So I don\u2019t know anybody in Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted On Thursday, 29th December 2011 Sammy Kuffour Ex Ghana international Samuel Osei-Kuffour insists the absence of traditional heavyweights in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations takes nothing out of the competition as feared. Rather, according to the former Bayern Munich defender, the emergence of less fancied sides in the biennial\u00a0showpiece is testament of paradigm shift in the African game. \u201cThat countries like Nigeria, Cameroun and Egypt did not make it to the 2012 Nations Cup showed that other nations are working to demystify the super powers of the game in Africa,\u201d Kuffour said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nKuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Kuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Posted On Thursday, 29th December 2011 Sammy Kuffour Ex Ghana international Samuel Osei-Kuffour insists the absence of traditional heavyweights in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations takes nothing out of the competition as feared. Rather, according to the former Bayern Munich defender, the emergence of less fancied sides in the biennial\u00a0showpiece is testament of paradigm shift in the African game. \u201cThat countries like Nigeria, Cameroun and Egypt did not make it to the 2012 Nations Cup showed that other nations are working to demystify the super powers of the game in Africa,\u201d Kuffour said.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/de97Sammy-Kuffour.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Kuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-29T16:27:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/de97Sammy-Kuffour.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/\",\"name\":\"Kuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/de97Sammy-Kuffour.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-29T16:27:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/de97Sammy-Kuffour.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/de97Sammy-Kuffour.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/kuffour-downplays-absence-of-giants-at-2012-afcon\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Kuffour Downplays Absence Of Giants At 2012 Afcon - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Posted On Thursday, 29th December 2011 Sammy Kuffour Ex Ghana international Samuel Osei-Kuffour insists the absence of traditional heavyweights in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations takes nothing out of the competition as feared. 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