The annual ritual of selecting Africa’s best players and rewarding them is upon us again.<\/p>\n
On December 20, 2012, in the city of Accra, Ghana, Globacom, the African telecommunication giants and the sole-sponsors of this annual feast of excitement and drama for the past 5 years, will pull out all the stops and spare no expense in organising for the fourth time in Ghana, a show that can only best itself in scope, style, content and organisation. A large audience made up of the high and mighty in African celebrity, captains of industry and top politicians from the host country, the Creme of the Confederation of African Football executive members, high-ranking football and government administrators, a sprinkling of legendary African footballers, a fine selection of some of Africa’s best cultural icons, artists, entertainers and musicians, Glo Ambassadors, and a cross-section of Ghana’s celebrity across the spectrum of entertainment, will make up another memorable night again.<\/p>\n
The organisers always ensure that the night is one to enjoy and savour, as the continent celebrates some of the best footballers of African descent that have provided some of the best football in the past one year. The period in consideration is January to December 2012.<\/p>\n
My particular interest on this occasion is in the most prestigious of the awards, the one that draws the curtains on the event annually, the one that crowns the African Player of the Year. The award usually goes to a male player of African origin that may be playing anywhere in the world, but is considered to have played the best football and, perhaps, contributed the most to the success of the team he plays for, without the team necessarily having to win a championship!<\/p>\n
Let me admit straight away that I am no longer quite conversant with the latest criteria for selection and the process. There are also a few questions that agitate my mind as the day draws closer. In my mind it sets the stage for the African Cup of Nations which seems to play a major part in the choice of the list of players. Who does the initial selection of the best 10 players? What do the selectors put into consideration in making their choices? Who whittles down the numbers from the initial list of 10 to 5 and then finally to the last 3 that we now have? Who does the final selection of the winner on the night? The answers to these questions may be quite simple and academic, as everyone people seem to have accepted the previous verdicts as authentic and deserved. My views here are not to challenge, invalidate or even criticise any aspect of previous awards, but rather to validate them and look at how they could be made to reflect better the purpose(s) the awards are meant to serve.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The annual ritual of selecting Africa’s best players and rewarding them is upon us again. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n