By Ben EFE
All 16 gladiators for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations received their confirmation last weekend. And the Confederation of Africa Football will shortly make the draws for the finalists, which include the co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Angola, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Tunisia, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Libya and Sudan.

But here is a list of the biggest winners and losers of the qualification battle.

Winners

Niger: The Mena of Niger opened a new chapter in their football history with qualification to the finals. Niger was proclaimed the winner after Niger, South Africa and Sierra Leone all finished tied on nine points each, with Egypt bottom of the group with five points. In such a case, when two or more teams are equal on points, the ranking of the teams was established according to certain established criteria, CAF said.

In application of Rule 14.1 CAF said it considered only results of matches between the concerned teams — Niger, South Africa and Sierra Leone — resulting in the following ranking based on the matches played by the teams concerned and confirmed that Niger had six points while South Africa and Sierra Leone both had five points.

Libya: The Libyans were a fine example of players who are determined to chase a lost course. The Libyans who qualified as one of the highest-ranked second-place teams over came difficult conditions to earn their qualification. They defeated the Comoros 3-0 in Bamako seven months ago and snatched a crucial 1-0 victory over Mozambique behind closed doors in Cairo last month after the fixture was switched from the Malian capital at the last minute for security reasons.

The popular uprising against Moamar Kadhafi had a direct impact on the squad with one star banished for calling dead rebels “rats and dogs” while others refuse to wear the new national colours of red, green and black until the entire country is liberated.

At the height of the struggle against Kadhafi, the squad risked their lives driving along the Mediterranean coast from Tripoli to Tunisia where they teamed up with Paqueta, who last received a salary six months ago.

Ghana: The Blacks Stars put behind their injury woes and put up a gallant display to win 2-0 against Sudan in Omdurman. Asamoah Gyan and John Mensah put the smiles on the faces of their teaming fans. Ghana who ended the game with ten men following the dismissal of Isaac Vorsah in the 57th minute qualify from Group I, where the finished top of the table with 16 points, after recording five wins and a draw in six games. The Black Stars scored a total of 13 and conceded just a goal.

Guinea: The Syli stars made the Super Eagles of Nigeria silly and secured their place at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations after holding Nigeria to a 2-2 draw in their ultimate Group B match on Saturday in Abuja. The Syli Nationale left it late against their hosts to snatch a vital point and qualify automatically as winners of the group.

Losers

Nigeria: It is now clear that coach Samson Siasia and his Eagles are overrated. How else can the scandalous performance last weekend be described. Here was a team that was given all the motivation and support also coming from the home fans, but it was a catalog of misses and disjointed team work. Guinea reminded the Eagle that they meant to qualify for the Nations Cup when they took the lead with Ismael Bangoura firing home for the visitors. The Eagles were just lackluster, until Ikechukwu Uche came in and turned the game around by making one for Obinna Nsofor and scoring Nigeria’s second goal. But Ibrahima Traore’s goal deep into stoppage time ensured Guinea’s progress and meant Nigeria failed to qualify for the first time since 1986. They will be absent from the competition for the first time since 1998 however, after being banned from those finals for quitting the 1996 edition for political reasons.

“Not qualifying for a World Cup is one thing but when we don’t qualify for a Nations Cup, that hurts as it means we don’t belong to the best teams in the continent,” said former Eagles captain Sunday Oliseh.

South Africa: After South Africa played a goalless draw with Sierra Leone in Johannesburg, the Bafana Bafana and their fans were celebrating literally with song and dance, but one hour later they wre brought down to earth with realisation that they have not qualified simply because they misread the Caf rules.

Most of the players confessed they didn’t understand how, after their 0-0 draw with Sierra Leone and Niger’s heavy loss to Egypt, it suddenly was Niger and not South Africa proceeding to next year’s continental finals in Equatorial Guinea/ Gabon.

Niger qualified on a better head-to-head record after they finished on nine points along with SA and Sierra Leone. This rule, in spite of it being available on the Caf website, was never drummed into the heads of the players and officials and local media all assumed goal difference was the first determinant of qualification in case of a tie on points.

“The truth is we didn’t know anything about this rule,” Bafana goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune said. “It’s an unfair rule. We fought so hard to top the group and when we checked afterward we were indeed top. We thought we had succeeded in making the nation proud.”