Last puzzle is familiar

Finally, the list of 27 players were revealed 2 days ago for a tournament that will kickoff this weekend. The rule says that out of this number 4 are going to be thrown out (for a moment), thus coaches can select 23 of them before each match. And all 648 names can be downloaded for personal use in 24 different pdf files.

Now that every data is known (logo, ball, cities, stadia, referees, those who will observe are there any irregularities and being stuck looking at the little monitors together with footballers at the end), the Africa Cup of nations 2023 (2024) is more than ready for the official start from Saturday onwards.

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Simultaneous championships

In 2024 we are expecting to hear 4 team champions. And after all the available (free) days this month, the first 2 competitions happens to be with similar dates and its matches would overlap with one another.

From next weekend the football world will be focused on 2 neighbouring continents where (officially) its two major events are going to have an old number after the names. At each of the 2, 24 best teams would participate at every confederation after they went though long qualifiers just to get here and be noted on the final showdown. Usually the following tournaments are being played on the summer period, but because of weather conditions (at both 2 hosts) these ones have been transferred to the winter season.

According to the schedule, Asian Cup 2023 (2024) will start first. Within 12 January and 10 February 51 duels are going to be played at 9 stadia which are situated in 5 cities. Because the temperatures in Qatar at June / July are very high, the edition number 18 will be played in January / February period. For the first time Tajikistan is going to appear in the finals. Literally on the last 3 days / nights (weekend) of next week 14 teams would be introduced to the public.

12 January, Friday at 17.00 CEt: Qatar - Lebanon.

13 January, Saturday at 12.30 CEt: Australia - India.

13 January, Saturday at 15.30 CEt: People's Republic of China - Tajikistan.

13 January, Saturday at 18.30 CEt: Uzbekistan - Syria.

14 January, Sunday at 12.30 CEt: Japan - Vietnam.

14 January, Sunday at 15.30 CEt: United Arab Emirates - Hong Kong.

14 January, Sunday at 18.30 CEt: Islamic Republic of Iran - Palestine.

Just 27 hours later from (the official start of) the predecessor at Ivory coast will commence the Africa Cup of nations 2023 (2024). Edition number 34 is going to be spread in 5 towns and 6 stadia across the country. Here, we have a totally different weather climate: on summer where is heavy rain so that is why this will be staged from 13 January to 11 February. It is interesting to mention that no team is going to make a debut in these finals and has not been like that since 1984. Kickoffs and the layout for the first 4 games are:

13 January, Saturday at 21.00 CEt: Ivory coast - Guinea-Bissau.

14 January, Sunday at 15.00 CEt: Nigeria - Equatorial Guinea.

14 January, Sunday at 18.00 CEt: Egypt - Mozambique.

14 January, Sunday at 21.00 CEt: Ghana - Cape Verde.

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Jury will listen to confessions next month

On 20 December 2023 it was decided that one case concerning former football player will resume this year.

From last January Daniel Alves was in real trouble as he was thrown in jail. The reason was for rape of a 23-year-old girl at a nightclub in Barcelona, which happened one month earlier.

Since then the Brazilian player has denied everything, the court from the same city did not want to hear of releasing him on bail, so 1 year later the 40-year-old is still in prison. Now there are two news for this case: one is that the court have set new dates for continuing the trial and those would be held from 07 to 09 February, while the other is that the prosecutor want a 9 year punishment.

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Financial boost raised

Yesterday the organizers of an upcoming team event has revealed that it has increased the financial means on the main football show of the continent. Compared with the previous edition (from 2021), the Africa Cup of Nations 2023 (2024) have raised its money awards to 40 percent. In numbers this looks like this:

Each of the four quarterfinal winners would get 1.3 million dollars (1.2 million euros), while those teams who are going to be victorious in the semifinal duels would be rich by 2.5 million dollars (2.3 million euros). Participant number two of the overall competition or the losing finalist will get 4 million dollars (3.7 million euros). And despite the trophy, medals together with bouquet of flowers [(probably) received from everyone] is going to enjoy in 7 million euros (6.4 million euros).

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Known all participating players

Next Friday on the Asian continent begins the most valuable and major tournament: the Asian Cup. For this competition all 24 coaches were obliged to give the final list of players that will take part. So, each of the 624 participants can be viewed and downloaded from the website of the organization which was published today.

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