As a dour Yorkshireman, while most of you are quite rightly and understandably getting excited for Christmas and the festive period, I am already looking past the holiday season and into the new year - specifically to ‘blue Monday’, the third Monday of January. According to research, this is supposed to be the single most depressing day of the year “due to a combination of post-Christmas blues, cold dark nights and the arrival of unpaid credit card bills.”

But never fear, you can conquer blue Monday, for the greatest show on Earth will have started by the time 19th January rolls around. And no, I’m not talking about Wrestlemania. I’m talking about the football tournament that is the African Cup of Nations – or Coupe d’Afrique des Nations (CAN) for all you savvy MML students. This year it commences in sport renowned Equatorial Guinea. We’ll get into the almighty farce surrounding the host country shortly, but on another quick Equatorial Guinea-related sidenote, for those among you claiming to be sports fans who aren’t aware of Eric ‘the eel’ Moussambani, take five minutes out of your day to search for him on Youtube, and enjoy true Olympic spirit/hilarity.

The next edition of CAN was scheduled to take place in Morocco, but when they were unable to confirm their ability to host it due to the dreadful ongoing Ebola virus epidemic, the Moroccan team were promptly expelled from the tournament, as their right as host to automatically participate in the tournament had gone. Fair enough, you might say, although the Moroccan team may understandably feel aggrieved, as their record of having qualified for nine out of the previous 10 tournaments would suggest their team, including the likes of the skilful Taarabt, Belhanda and Boussoufa, would have comfortably qualified anyway.

But here’s my gripe – the new hosts, Equatorial Guinea, are now able to play in the tournament, despite having themselves been expelled during the qualification phase for fielding an ineligible player. Surely the creation of some sort of play-off match between Morocco and the new hosts, (perhaps with Eric Moussambani as special guest referee, perhaps not) would have been a fairer decision.

Now, we all know some of the actions of football’s governing bodies are often a bit puzzling and more than often downright suspicious. FIFA recently investigated FIFA and came to the surprising conclusion that FIFA were in fact not corrupt – good job lads. However, we can often forgive these actions due to the superb tournaments these governing bodies have a part in organising; and CAN (or should it be La CAN…) is no different, in its own unique way.

The unpredictability is on a par with the aforementioned Wrestlemania, with none other than the defending champions Nigeria failing to qualify for the upcoming tournament. And the last winner before Nigeria? Zambia. Yes, Zambia. A team whose most recognisable player can’t break into the (admittedly excellent) Southampton team. Emmanuel Mayuka beat the formidable Ivory Coast team, containing premier league superstars Yaya Touré and Didier Drogba, in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, and poignantly dedicated their win to the members of the national team who died in 1993.

Whether it’s the Togo team bus being attacked, Marc Vivien-Foé’s tragic death playing for Cameroon, or fatal riots at Egyptian league games, African football unfortunately never seems to be too far away from tragedy. But at a time when Band Aid 30 is coming under criticism for neglecting all that is positive about the African continent, let’s celebrate the African Cup of Nations for what it is: a full stuffing of passionate, skilful and athletic football, undoubtedly with a generous side portion of hilarious tackles, dives and goalkeeper howlers to put a smile on anyone’s face, regardless of any kind of post-Christmas blues.

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.