The Morocco Volleyball Federation will host the 2009 Men’s African Nations Championship in Tetouan, Morocco, from 27 September to 4 October.
Botswana men’s team lost 2ÔÇô3 to hosts Morocco but scored valuable points against the volleyball giants, losing the sets with margins of three points in the last World Cup qualifiers.
The team has been training since coming back from the August World Cup qualifiers. It will be participating against 12 national teams, in a world class competition.
“Morocco Volleyball Federation (FMVB) president Abdelhadi Ghzali held two press conferences last week to promote the tournament before the prestigious competition that is considered the most important in all the CAVB Championships.
The competition will feature 12 National teams playing in 2 pools to determine the African champions led by the reigning champions Egypt who won the title in Cairo in 2005 and in Durban in 2007.
“FMVB is ranked 18th but, still, Egypt comes as the big contenders to win the trophy and achieve the African title for the fifth time. Egypt recently secured one of the three African tickets in the 2010 World Championship in Italy.”
Botswana men’s team left on Monday and is expected to train at least for a few days in Morocco before the start of the games.
Tunisia is the second ranked African team in the World (20) and they are the most titled team in this prestigious competition with 8 titles under their belt, the last of which was in Cairo 2003.
“With their emerging performance in the last two years, Algeria comes as a great favourite for the title, especially after their amazing performance at the African Olympic Qualifiers, finishing second after Egypt, the African representative in Beijing. Algeria won two titles in this competition before.”
“Cameroon, the winner of the third berth in the 2010 World Championship, is considered as also a big force, with its mixture of European-based professionals and local players. Cameroon are two-times African champions in the history of the competition.”
Other participating teams are Kenya, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya and DR Congo.
(Additional reporting by cav.)
