Tournament in 2022 was overshadowed by poor crowd control and deaths as Jay-Jay Okocha predicts an open competition
Ivory Coast is about to stage its second Africa Cup of Nations but with the first happening 40 years ago, not many of the country’s more than 29 million people have experienced the tournament. Michel Brizoua-Bi, a lawyer and former senior figure in the Confederation of African Football (Caf), is among the exceptions.
Brizoua-Bi was 18 when, in March 1984, he and a 50,000 crowd, at the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, witnessed the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, captained by Théophile Abega and inspired by Roger Milla, win the first of their five Afcon titles, beating Nigeria (known as the Green Eagles at the time) 3-1 in the final.