ONE of the African football legends who believe that the absence of former champions like Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroun at next month's Africa Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon will dim the glamour of the championship is Moustafa Hadji.Hadji, who alongside Super Eagles' former skipper, Austin Okocha, were honoured with the legend award at this year's Glo-CAF Awards in Ghana, was disappointed that Africa's top footballing nations did not make it to the tourney while also acknowledging the presence of nations like Botswana and Niger, which are making their debut at the competition.'It is disappointing that nations like Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroun are not going to be at the 2012 Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, because they are big footballing countries,' he said. 'When you don't see these teams, the competition is not going to be the same and you won't feel it the same way.'You need these teams to be among the top four at the championship because we had expected them to be at the tournament. I think these nations are now faced with problems because new generation of players are now coming up.'They are also rebuilding and I believe in two years coming, they will be at the top level again. Nigeria is a nation with lots of talents and what they need is someone to build a new team and give confidence to the players.'He added: 'At the last U-23 championship in Morocco, Nigeria was not a big team we used to know in the past but I see that they still have the quality. What they need is to build a new team and I believe they will come out better because they have the potential to become a big team again.'On why African teams fail to excel at the World Cup, he said: 'It is not that the continent does not have the teams and talents to compete with teams from Europe and America, but the problem with African teams is that they don't play as a team. We have individual talent and this has also reflected in the teams.'But when we begin to play as a team, we will surely have more teams at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup. There is no doubt that the continent is blessed with potentials in the game but we must play as a family and this is what is lacking in most teams from the continent.'However, he emphasised the need for an organised league in the continent, saying: 'Aside from the inability to play as a team, we need to have a good league that can rival other leagues in the world.'With the potential that abounds in Africa, we cannot continue to export these talents to Europe and expect to do well at the World Cup. We need to have a good and well organised league so that our players can remain in Africa.'He tipped Ghana, Tunisia and Morocco to excel at the 2012 Nations Cup.
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