IAN WRIGHT is spot on when he says that racism and First World thinking is behind the disrespect shown to the Africa Cup of Nations.

Many of our best players throughout the divisions come to this country to work and play and we cheer them on every week — so why wouldn’t we show our full support for one of the world’s great sporting competitions?

“We played our Euros across 10 countries in the middle of a pandemic and there’s no issue at all. But Cameroon, a single country hosting a tournament, is a problem,” said Wright.

I don’t recall seeing such coverage about Copa America or the Euros as being a hindrance to our teams, and as Wright highlights, there is no question whether an England player would “honour” a call-up or not. 

There was hardly an uproar when four Argentina players were dragged off the pitch by health officials during their World Cup qualifier with Brazil, accused of violating Covid-19 protocols in order to enter the country.

The AFCON finals kick off on January 9 in Cameroon. Each club knows the precise dates that the tournament falls on. They have large squads and regularly lose players to injury, or more recently to Covid — surely it’s not beyond them to plan to cover Africa-based players being absent, often only for a couple of games unless they progress all the way through to the final.

These players are a huge part of what makes our teams great. What would Liverpool be without Mo Salah and Sadio Mane? Like the Olympics, football is a world sport, bringing people together from all over the globe to entertain and thrill us. If the price of this is to lose a couple of players to a competition every couple of years, surely that’s not too much to ask.

Ajax striker Sebastien Haller, who will represent Ivory Coast, said the suggestion a player would want to miss the tournament to play for their club “shows the disrespect for Africa.”

If you ask any football fan the question: ‘club or country?’ The majority will say the latter. So why, when a player takes pride in representing their own country, is it any different? It is, indeed, “tinged” with racism.

The negative media coverage not only undermines the integrity of the players and the tournament — it attempts to devalue a great sporting competition.

On Thursday, the Star supported Roberto Martinez who hammered the money bags for trying to hold a World Cup every two years, regardless of player welfare. It may not have been noticed yet, but how would competitions such as the Euros, AFCON and Copa America be played on that sort of schedule?

That cannot be considered a step forward for the game.

Once the referee blows their whistle, I look forward to watching some of football’s modern greats battle it out at the Africa Cup of Nations, and watch the media go back on the racism and double standards it has spewed in recent months.