Guinea get off to a flyer

EQUATORIAL GUINEA is not a football nation. Or at least, that’s what everybody said before the start of the 28th Cup of Nations, which the tiny former Spanish colony is co-hosting with Gabon.

There’s no national professional league, only 2,600 registered players, they’re ranked 151st in the world and 41st in Africa, and they’ve never previously qualified for a Cup of Nations. To put a squad together, they’ve had to trawl the globe looking for players with Equatoguinean heritage, or others happy to take a passport of convenience. Only two of their 23-man squad were born in Equatorial Guinea. If they weren’t co-hosts, it’s a pretty safe bet that they wouldn’t be here.

In 2006, the Confederation of African Football met to decide who would host the Cup of Nations in 2010, 2012 and 2013. It went for Angola, Gabon-Equatorial Guinea and Libya (after the uprising against Muammar Gadaffi, South Africa have stepped in, with Libya slated to host in 2017).