Hi, I'm Grant Wall, and welcome to the Planet Football Podcast, where I go in depth with the most intriguing

people in the world of soccer.

On today's show, Colin Udo of Quasi Sports joins me to talk about the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts

Saturday, including its history, its appeal, and why it always takes place in January

during the middle of the European club season.

Most of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, is tropical.

Unlike elsewhere where you've got different seasons, winter, summer, fall and all that,

we only have two major seasons here, which is the dry season and the rainy season.

Now, the summer is usually the rainy season here in Africa. And because of the state of some of the facilities,

you go put a tournament in the rainy season and everything

gets rained out then it just becomes a whole new ballgame entirely because it totally

marks up the entire tournament.

All that and more coming up.

With the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations starting on January 14th,

our guest today is my friend Colin Udo.

Colin is one of the leading authorities on world soccer, including the African region.

You can find him on Twitter at Colin Udo, C-O-L-I-N-U-D-O-H. He will be covering this year's Afghan in Gabon for Quasi Sports, which is on Twitter at K-W-E-S-E-S-S-S-E-S-S-S-S-S-E-S-S-S-S-E-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-E-S-S-S-S-S-T-S-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-S-T'S, And you know, Africa Cup of Nations is one of my favorite tournaments. I've only been to one that was in Angola in 2010, but really enjoyed it like watching it on TV. This year's version is going to be on B in Sports and English,

Univision de Portes in Spanish. This tournament's every two years. there's great talent involved.

I remember getting my first glimpse of Pierre Amrich Obama-Yang in the Afghan.

The games are often very entertaining.

Just to start, what is the significance of the Afghan to soccer fans in Africa?

What does it mean to them?

...