Spoiler

Africa Cup of Nations semi-final drama – join in at home!

The ACN gets down to the last four, and a solution to several of football’s knottiest problems emerges…

Today is semi-final day in the Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament good enough to be held every year. Before Mr Wenger, Mr Grant and whoever is pulling the strings at Newcastle start complaining about losing their best players every twelve months instead of every two years, listen to this. While the ACN is being held, the European national sides could play all their Euro or World Cup qualifiers instead of domestic games. In this way, the Premier League teams would not miss their African players as they do at present, and the tedium of the many international breaks fans currently endure – there have been three missed weekends this year, the same duration as the ACN – would be replaced by a festival of international football on two continents simultaneously.

International managers would get the time with their teams that they are for ever moaning they are denied, and those not involved (eg Sir Alex Ferguson) would get the lovely mid-season break that they annually whine about needing. Then as a bonus, the racist clowns who found themselves so amusing watching Lewis Hamilton practice in Spain last weekend could be made to attend every single fixture of the Africa Cup of Nations, in blackface and wearing their silly “Hamilton’s familly” t-shirts, to help them reflect at length on the wisdom of their actions. Bureaucrats, make it so.

Betting tips

* The Ivory Coast and Ghana have a 100 per cent record – four wins from four games in the tournament so far.

* History is on Ghana’s side: when they hosted the tournament in 1963 and 1978, they won. The host nation has also won the tournament on the last two occasions (Egypt in 2006 and Tunisia in 2004).

* The Ivory Coast have scored at least once in their last eight internationals, and have an average of exactly three goals per game over that period.

Click here for more tips and to place your bets on tonight’s action.