Paul Moss

Yes, and a lot of the spending is also with an eye on co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.

Some $5 billion has been spent, partly hosting this tournament.

A large amount of money of the $5 billion is being spent on a 115,000-seater stadium in the countryside outside of Casablanca near Ben Slimane.

And there have been protests, partly on the amount of money

of money that's being spent on football with the Gen Z 212 protesters calling for more money to be spent on health and education instead.

And with the football itself, there's also been anger by some of the nations taking part in the tournament, I gather, because they feel they weren't given enough time to get their teams ready for the matches.

Yeah, very much so.

It's been squeezed into the calendar here in December, being played over Christmas and New Year for the first time.

And usually ahead of these tournaments, clubs should release players 14 days before the first game.

This time around, it was seven days.

And that has sparked a lot of anger.

The Mali coach, Tom Sanfitte, was one to criticise it.

He said it was catastrophic.

But in the end, FIFA and the European clubs got their way and teams had very little time to prepare or play friendlies.

I've got to ask you, as someone who watches African football, who do you think are the favourites to come out on top in this tournament?

Obviously Morocco are the overwhelming favourites.

From my point of view, Senegal play the best football in Africa at the moment.

I'd say as well conditions favour the North Africans.

If you'd asked me a few months ago, I'd have said Egypt would be the firm favourites to win.

The great thing about AFCON is it really delivers the unexpected so often.