Jamie Carragher has walked back his jibe on the African Cup of Nations after being hammered by African football legends.
Though Carragher acknowledged that his remarks about AFCON were not considerate and accepted his fault, he refused to be labeled ignorant and disrespectful.
His words that AFCON was not a major tournament that could fetch the likes of Mo Salah the Ballon d’Or were touched by El Hadji Diouf, Austin Okocha, Didier Drogba and John Obi Mikel who have all played and made impact in AFCON.
“Where I got it wrong was, I was clumsy with my language in describing AFCON as ‘not a major tournament,” Carragher was quoted by Liverpool Echo.
“What I would say is I’ve got very strong opinions on the game, I love debate and that will never change but what I would never want to be described at is ignorant or disrespectful,” Carragher asserted.
He added: “I was trying to explain the merits of Mo Salah winning the Ballon d’Or as you’ve just said and I feel that, not just AFCON, I would say the Asia Games, the Gold Cup, not so much the Copa America, but there’s five major tournaments out there besides the World Cup that are for their continents and are obviously a major tournament, but some of them don’t resonate with the people who vote for the Ballon d’Or.”
