We get a lot of product emails here at The Offside & World Cup Blog global headquarters (located just left of sanity). Some are good, some are bad, most promise to love us long time. This one is, without a doubt, unique, simply because it isn't.

Puma has unveiled a universal third kit for African countries in 2010 in partnership with the United Nations good partner to have which will be worn by all African teams sponsored by, you guessed it, Puma.

Are the CAF guilty of a huge injustice?

Togo have been banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations following their withdrawal from this year's tournament.
The Confederation of African football (Caf) also fined the Hawks $50,000 for quitting the competition in the wake of a gun attack on the team bus in Angola.

The latest FIFA rankings have been published, with the top nine positions remaining unchanged. Egypt was the month's big winner, jumping from 24th to 10th on the strength of their impressive Africa Cup of Nations triumph. Cameroon, meanwhile, slid from 11th to 20th after making a disappointing early exit from the tournament.

Last month, I wrote about the kits that were on show at the Africa Cup of Nations. My enthusiasm for them was motivated purely by aesthetics and had nothing to do with Puma's boasts about the material from which the shirts were made. The Angolan kit was my favourite because the design was striking and original (it had a picture of a black antelope over the right shoulder); any claims by Puma that the shirt boosted player mobility, or transferred sweat away from the body faster, could never impress me as much as that antelope.

Today, the team bus with the Togo national team was viciously attacked by Angolan rebels on its way to the Africa Cup of Nations (superb analysis here and here), and already there is talk the tournament may be canceled.
Organizers and participants have a choice. Either they cancel the ACN, thereby granting victory to those who would take the lives of other human beings to further their cause, as the US has in the years since you-know-when, and may continue to do so in Yemen following the recent attempted bombing of that Detroit-bound plane.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: Main Report

On this week's main report, we continue our look at some of the countries who have qualified for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. This week we feature one of the teams that made it through from the African section and who are also currently taking part in the Africa Cup of Nations, Algeria.

By AVI CREDITOR

The double-whammy that is the red card/penalty kick may be no more.

FIFA has submitted an item for the International Football Associations Board to review that would downgrade a red card to a yellow on a foul that denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity in the box.

Beating the best side in North America two months after a victory against the best side in Africa should be a cause of optimism for England in their quest to become the best side in the world, but Monday night's 3-1 win over Mexico at Wembley was as qualified a success as the defeat of Egypt in March by the same score.

Get Manchester City Tickets at Fantastic Prices Now!

Join Our Facebook Fan Page for the Latest News/Rumours/Forums/Videos/WAGS/Funny Stuff/Features!

Patrick Vieira joins Manchester City's £100,000 club
• 33-year-old looking to earn France recall
• Vieira could make debut against Blackburn

Patrick Vieira, here in Internazionale colours, could be handed the Manchester City captaincy while Kolo Touré is at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Terrible news broke today that the Togo team bus was attacked on its way to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, with machine gun fire leaving the driver dead and several players hurt.

The incident has many questioning the safety of players for the World Cup in South Africa.

In the comments to the previous post about today's attack on Togo's team bus in Cabinda (reminding Henry Winter that it's part of Angola, and not South Africa), Andrew Guest suggested we post a map of Cabinda to illustrate its complex relation to Angola. As we can see, Cabinda is an enclave of Angola, with what is called Zaire on the map (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) between it and Angola proper.

Togo's footballers were today flying out of Angola after their government intervened and ordered them to return following the terrorist attack on their team bus.
The decision, which comes hours after members of the squad voted to stay and take part in the Africa Cup of Nations, emerged after the Prime Minister of Togo demanded they return home immediately.

Didier Drogba wants the Togo tragedy to unite Africa:

"People have an opinion of Africa and it is not so good, but we have to let sport unite us all... They see us as being behind the rest of the world in financial and in sporting terms, but this year give us a chance to show people a different Africa.

Mali staged a remarkable comeback in the last 11 minutes of Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations 2010 opener to tie host Angola 4-4. Saudi Arabia-based striker Flavio opened the scoring for Angola with a 36th-minute diving header before adding a second in the 42nd. Gilberto's and Manucho's second half penalties for Angola agave the hosts what appeared to be [.

England's World Cup Group C opponents Algeria were in action vs Malawi in the Africa Cup of Nations today. As you can see above, it did not go well.

Algeria went into the game very much as favourites, but ended as 3-0 losers. Disastrous defending for the first goal. And the third. Malawi blogger Sscouser was understandably happy with the result.

I guess most of us were worried about losing Song to the Africa Cup of Nations. Now that he is back and I am assuming he will play against United, it is worthwhile taking a look at just how badly did we miss the Cameroon hard-man.

Song left for Angola after helping us win the Cup tie at West Ham.

Egypt won the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations yesterday, beating Ghana 1-0 in the final with the above 85th minute goal form Mohamed Nagy, a.k.a Gedo, a.k.a the world's greatest super sub. Why is the 25 year old Al-Ittihad Al-Sakndary player the world's greatest super sub? Here's why:

Gedo didn't start any of Egypt's six games at Angola 2010, and yet somehow finished the tournament as top scorer with five goals.

As Rob mentioned earlier, the England vs Egypt friendly is more important than your average friendly. It's the first game since the John Terry fiasco for example, and we'll all be watching to see how he performs sans elasticated armband. There's the left back situation too. Ashley Cole is currently injured and Wayne Bridge has removed himself from the equation, so Everton's Leighton Baines and Aston Villa's Stephen Warnock both have a shot to booking themselves a World Cup ticket.

Union

Goal.com's head-to-head preview of Saturday's match against Chivas USA has the Philly guy predicting a 2–0 Union win and the Chivas guy a 3–1 Union win. Our preview predicts a 2–1 win if Jonathan Bornstein plays, a 3–1 win if he doesn't.

The Daily News takes a closer look at what the Union will be doing with the $50K it won for high school soccer in Chester.

Union

Goal.com's head-to-head preview of Saturday's match against Chivas USA has the Philly guy predicting a 2–0 Union win and the Chivas guy a 3–1 Union win. Our preview predicts a 2–1 win if Jonathan Bornstein plays, a 3–1 win if he doesn't.

The Daily News takes a closer look at what the Union will be doing with the $50K it won for high school soccer in Chester.

The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off this Sunday, January 10th in Angola. You can find the full match schedule here.

Below you'll find the squads for all 16 qualified nations, divided by group. A quick glance down the list reveals a lot of familiar names and a lot of European clubs.

Gunmen opened fire with machine guns on a bus carrying Togo's football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, wounding several players.

Officials say the shooting occurred in the Angolan oil-rich territory of Cabinda, where rebels have been fighting for independence. The Angolan government called the incident an "act of terrorism".

During my brief six months working in Angola between 2002 and 2003, a favorite pastime of mine when driving around Luanda was to try to identify the replica team shirts worn by ubiquitous street soccer teams playing in any available space. Brazil's canary yellow was the most popular, but the range was impressive; I saw complete teams kitted out in the reds of Manchester United, the burgundy of Portugal, the green stripes of Sporting Lisbon, the yellow/orange/black on white design of Germany, even the all whites of Real Madrid—a hopelessly futile choice in the face of the city's red dirt and grimy haze.

Togo's Prime Minister Gilbert Huongbo has denied the country wants to re-enter the Africa Cup of Nations.

Togo pulled out of the tournament in Angola after a gun attack on their team bus left three people dead last Friday.

There have been numerous conflicting reports since concerning the team's continued participation in the event.

While we were busy thinking about the Africa Cup of Nations this weekend, Internazionale were pulling out one of the great Serie A comebacks at home to Siena. Inter were 3-2 down with full time approaching when Wesley Sneijder stepped up and pinged a free kick off the post and in. Walter Samuel then went [.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: Main Report

The Africa Cup of Nations, the FA Cup and the King's Cup in Spain all feature all feature in this week's review of the football world in the good, the bad and the ugly section of the podcast.

When you're good enough to ply your trade in Europe and play international football, you've got an easy life, right? Ask Malian captain and Real Madrid player Mahamadou Diarra (pictured.)

Diarra's life was so glamourous yesterday, in fact, that he and his team were reduced to begging security staff to allow them onto the pitch for their scheduled training time.

Cameroon were 1-0 down to Zambia last night, and genuinely in danger of an early Africa Cup of Nations 2010 exit. Until. In the 68th minute, Geremi (who plays for either Newcastle or Ankaragücü, depending on who you ask) sprinted to prevent the ball going out for a throw and swung a hopeful ball in the general direction of the penalty area.

>> Click Here To Watch Ghana Vs Nigeria Live Now <<

Ghana Vs Nigeria Live Streaming & Match Preview
Africa Cup of Nations Ghana Vs Nigeria Live Online Click Here
Thursday, 28th January 2010
Kick Off : 16:00 GMT
Venue : Estádio 11 de Novembro, Angola

This match for the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of nations will be played on Thursday 28th January at 5:00 PM (local time) in the Estádio 11 de Novembro of Luanda.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Wayne Rooney, revenge for Egypt and Manchester United fans all feature in the good, the bad and the ugly section of the podcast. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

>> Click Here To Watch Ghana Vs Egypt Live Now <<

Ghana Vs Egypt Live Streaming & Match Preview
Africa Cup of Nations – Ghana Vs Egypt Live Online Click Here
Sunday, 31st January 2010
Kick Off : 16:00 GMT
Venue : Estádio 11 de Novembro, Angola

This game for the final of the Africa Cup of Nations will be played on 31st January in the Estádio 11 de Novembro, Luanda (Angola) at 5:00 PM local time.

It takes an organisation of quite incredible incompetence to make one thankful for the expertise and tact of the SFA.So take a bow the Confederation of African Football.On the eve of their showpiece final, at the start of the biggest year in the history of African football, CAF have announced that Togo will be fined $50,000 and banned from the next two tournaments.

By Felipe Hassin Pinto a.k.a The Man from the Grove

Maddy's Note: A difficult- to take night at the Camp Nou is covered by our 'Foreign Correspondent' and good mate Felipe. He's got some tough questions to ask of our board and manager. Please note these are his views and do not Reflect BigFourZa's views.

Michael Essien has been confirmed to miss the remainder of Chelsea's season after failing to recover from a nagging knee problem. The extent of the Ghanaian international's injury is baffling even to the club's medical experts. It was expected that Essien would return for Chelsea's weekend fixture against stoke.

Black Stars coach Milovan Rajevac announced his provisional World Cup squad.

Amongst them, Pompey's Kevin Prince Boateng whose switch to Ghana is still to be approved by FIFA because of his U21 representation for Germany.

Michael Essien also gets a call up even as he has been missing in action for Chelsea since December after a hamstring tear playing APOEL in the Champions League and then sustaining a knee injury at the Africa Cup of Nations in January.

Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that Moroccan international striker Marouane Chamakh has joined the Gunners on a long-term contract.Chamakh (26), who joins Arsenal from French side Bordeaux, made a total of 293 appearances, scoring 79 goals during his eight years with Les Girondins.

The World Cup will be missing one of it's true stars as the Ghana Football Association today confirmed Michael Essien will miss the 2010 World Cup.

The following statement was released on the Ghana Football Association website:

'Black Stars midfielder, Michael Essien has been ruled out of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Michael Essien, the rock of Ghana's midfield will not make it to South Africa.

He has been unable to recover sufficiently from a tear to his medial collateral ligament sustained in January while training for the Africa Cup of Nations.

How big will his loss be? He is an undoubted star but there are positive signs that he may not be indispensable.

The important thing when getting knocked out of the World Cup is not to overreact. It's not the end of the world. It's just the end of your tournament. So you dust yourself off, get ready to start again and prepare to do better in the next tournament. Goodluck Jonathan disagrees.

The Nigerian President was apparently so disappointed with the Super Eagles' World Cup performance (finishing bottom of Group B) that he's suspended the team from international competition for two years.

THE BIG PICTURE
Hands up if you thought this Ghana team would struggle without injured captain/superstar midfielder Michael Essien. Now use that hand to slap yourself in the face. Gently, but still do it. That slap is from the likes of Kevin-Prince Boateng, Kwadwo Asamoah , Anthony Annan and Dede Ayew, all of whom have impressed in midfield for the Black Stars this tournament.