{"id":56046,"date":"2021-12-25T16:28:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T15:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=56046"},"modified":"2021-12-25T16:13:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T15:13:30","slug":"afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira","title":{"rendered":"AFCON equals any European Championship, I\u2019ll never stop African players \u2013 Patrick Vieira"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has said he will never stop his players from representing their countries in the forthcoming African Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman noted that the competition is as important as the European Championship.<\/p>\n

Some managers of top European clubs with African players have criticised the timing of AFCON and with the fourth wave of COVID-19 creating more fears.<\/p>\n

Vieira will see three of his Palace top stars, Wilfried Zaha, Cheikhou Kouyate and Jordan Ayew leave for the competition as they join Cote d\u2019Ivoire, Senegal and Ghana respectively.<\/p>\n

Despite their plans to go home, the former Arsenal skipper, who is a Senegalese-born, said he will never prevent the players from travelling to Cameroon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect and I understand the passion and importance of those players to go and represent their country,\u201d Vieira said on Palace\u2019s official website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never stop any players going to the Africa Cup of Nations. I believe that competition has to be more respected because this competition is as important as the European Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Senegal, I don\u2019t think people understand [Sadio] Mane or Cheikhou Kouyate not representing their nation. If there was more coverage, people will understand how important it is for the African continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has said he will never stop his players from representing their countries in the forthcoming African Cup of Nations. The Frenchman noted that the competition is as important as the European Championship. Some managers of top European clubs with African players have criticised the timing of AFCON […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":56045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[468,1570,2140,6253,254,1832],"class_list":["post-56046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-afcon","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-european-championship","tag-nigeria","tag-patrick-vieira"],"yoast_head":"\nAFCON equals any European Championship, I\u2019ll never stop African players \u2013 Patrick Vieira - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has said he will never stop his players from representing their countries in the f ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFCON equals any European Championship, I\u2019ll never stop African players \u2013 Patrick Vieira\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has said he will never stop his players from representing their countries in the f ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-25T15:28:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61c7350196d47.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"AFCON equals any European Championship, I\u2019ll never stop African players \u2013 Patrick Vieira\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-25T15:28:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61c7350196d47.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AFCON\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"European Championship\",\"Nigeria\",\"Patrick Vieira\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-equals-any-european-championship-ill-never-stop-african-players-patrick-vieira\",\"name\":\"AFCON equals any European Championship, I\u2019ll never stop African players \u2013 Patrick Vieira - 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