This years’ tourney kicking-off in Cape Town on Saturday, has now been graded to level A.
This means all the players will be capped and rankings will come into effect, according to world football governing body.
Previously, CHAN tournaments were not considered an A grade as it only featured local players’ but as from now it will be recognized.
There were concerns particularly for Bafana, who open their account against neighbours Mozambique in the group A match on Saturday evening, that players’ would not be capped and the rankings would have not applied.
The 1996 Africa Cup Winners are upbeat following their dramatic 1-0 win against World and European champs Spain last year.
This is a great motivator for the players’ and of course the country.
Now the onus is upon them to win the silverware since we’re the first country to be given such status in hosting this tournament and suddenly elevated to level A grade.
Tickets for the opening ceremony are still available at all Computicke outlets.
*Meanwhile, Yaya Toure was named the African Footballer of the Year for the third time consecutively.
The lanky midfielder of Manchester City and Ivory Coast tower beat tough contenders and teammate Didier Drogba (Galatasary) and Obi Mikel of Nigeria (Chelsea).
Awards were held in Nigeria’s capital city Lagos.
Nigeria, also made a clean sweep as they collected other notable awards.
