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Former Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o says it is the duty of Africans to defend the scheduling of the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n The 2021 tournament was held in Cameroon in January and February this year, in the middle of the European season, to avoid the rainy season in the Central African nation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The timing of the Nations Cup has <\/span>led to repeated disputes with clubs<\/span><\/a> who have been forced to release players, and the issue will persist after the 2023 finals in Ivory Coast were moved to early 2024 because of weather concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n Napoli owner and president Aurelio de Laurentiis said the Italian club would avoid signing any more Africans unless they agree not to play in the biennial tournament – with Senegal coach Aliou Cisse hitting back that international football <\/span>should never play second fiddle to club commitments.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Eto’o, who had spells at Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter Milan and won the Nations Cup twice with the Indomitable Lions, has backed Cisse’s stance.<\/span><\/p>\n “We are Africans – nobody else can defend our continent better than ourselves,” Eto’o, who is now president of Cameroon’s football federation (Fecafoot), told BBC Sport Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n “Before the Nations Cup in Cameroon, I said that it’s important to play in January-February, something that obviously didn’t please some other people.<\/span><\/p>\n “But this is a fact in Africa. We have the rainy season in June, July, August, even early September in our continent. It’s just a matter of getting on the same page with others and explaining things.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I am rather happy to see children of this continent being aware that nobody else will defend our continent for us.”<\/span><\/p>\n However, Eto’o says that staging this year’s World Cup in the middle of the European season shows that concessions can be made by clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n Players must be released for the finals in Qatar on 14 November, with the first match six days later and the final on 18 December.<\/span><\/p>\n England’s Premier League will have its last pre-World Cup fixtures on the weekend of 12-13 November, and then resume on 26 December.<\/span><\/p>\n