Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp clashed with a reporter who accused him of referring to the Africa Cup of Nations as a ‘little tournament.” The Liverpool manager was asked before their 2-0 win over FC Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday evening about the lack of international breaks until March but pointed out that some players will be playing at AFCON in January.
Jurgen Klopp Calls AFCON a Little Tournament
Responding to that, Jurgen Klopp said: “No international break until March. I’ve heard that so often, but in January, there’s a little tournament in Africa, I just want to say.” But after Liverpool’s win victory over Porto at Anfield, Klopp was asked to apologise to the people of Africa for his choice of words.
Jurgen Klopp then said: “It’s all good. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t know why you understand it like that, to be honest.” “I didn’t mean it like that, come on… so I was not even close to it being the idea in my mind that I want to talk about the AFCON as a ‘little tournament’ or about the continent of Africa as a ‘little continent’, not at all.”
He then explained what he meant. He said when you watch the entire press conference. Then you might have understood it the right way if you wanted to because I said there are no international breaks until March now. In defence, he said: “I said, ‘oh, there’s a little tournament in January’ and I didn’t mean a ‘little’ tournament, I was saying it’s still a tournament, it’s ironic. It’s still a tournament, a big one. We [will] lose our best players to that tournament.”
