Crystal Palace head coach Patrick Vieira has called for more respect for the African Cup of Nations amid pressure from foreign quarters for the tournament to be cancelled over safety and security concerns.There has been pressure majorly from European coaches and clubs for the tournament that is slated for January in Cameroon to be canceled with clubs unwilling to let there stars take part in the tournament with most of the European leagues midway through the season.Despite the fact that he will lose Wilfried Zaha, Jordan Ayew and Chekhou Kouyate to Ivory Coast, Ghana and Senegal respectively, Vieira says the tournament ought to be respected. He added that he will never stop any player from representing their nation.”I respect and understand the passion and the importance to players to go and represent their country so I will never stop any player going to play the Africa Cup of Nations. I believe that that competition needs to be more respected – because this competition is as important as the European Championships,” he said on Friday.Aliou Cisse has announced the Senegal Squad for the AFCON▪️Uefa’s best Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy called up▪️Napoli hitman Koulibaly inclusive ▪️Bayern Munich’s Bouna Sarr will play his debut AFCON▪️Liverpool stalwart Sadio Mane stars▪️PSG’s Gana Gueye makes the cut pic.twitter.com/6OJl2tpec9— Yaw Ampofo Jr (@Yaw_Ampofo_) December 24, 2021 AFCON has received negative coverage particularly from foreign media and the World Cup winner has challenged European challenges to cover AFCON more to get a better grasp of the competition.”It might be important for you guys to cover the Africa Cup of Nations a little bit more and to go to Africa and interview people to really understand what it means for every single one of them,” he said.He further challenged those against the staging of the tournament to first understand how important the competition is to the people of Africa.”When you are talking about Senegal I don’t think people would really understand if (Sadio) Mane or Cheikou Kouyate didn’t represent their nation. If there was more coverage of that competition I think people will understand more how important it is for the African continent,” he added.AFCON starts on 9th January .
