How AFCON 2023 And The Asian Cup Will Impact The Premier League

Premier League sides could miss their top African and Asian soccer players for up to four games this January and February.

African national team players will be in the Cote d’Ivoire for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. Asian players will be in Qatar for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.

With more than fifty Premier League players likely to be called up for those tournaments, this could have a big impact on the Premier League.

Teams like Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion could lose up to four players to the tournaments, whereas Newcastle United and Manchester City could be completely unaffected.

Of course, some of the players who could potentially be missing might not get selected, or they could miss the tournament through injury, like Nottingham Forest’s talismanic striker Taiwo Awoniyi. Even excluding Awoniyi, Forest could lose six players to AFCON, which is more than any other Premier League side.

The number of games missed also depends on how far each country progresses through the tournament, with players from teams eliminated in the group stage or round of 16 likely to miss just two Premier League fixtures. However, with basically all of the Premier League players at the Africa Cup of Nations playing for the 13 top-ranked teams in the tournament, it is likely that quite a few Premier League players at AFCON will miss more than two games.

This could give some teams a disadvantage, but rather than the total number of players, the real difference will be which players the teams are missing.

Six of the players heading to AFCON are in the top five at their clubs for both the most minutes played and highest whoscored rating. These players are likely to be a huge loss for their teams.

Mohammed Salah will obviously be missed by Liverpool.

Brentford will lose two of their key attacking players, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, who between them have scored almost half of the Bees’ goals this season. This will likely make Brentford even keener to hold on to Ivan Toney during this winter transfer window.

Manchester United’s Andre Onana has now rejoined the Cameroon national team after a falling out during the 2022 World Cup. Turkish international Altay Bayindir will likely deputize for Onana while he is at AFCON, but he is yet to make a single appearance for United since his move from Fenerbahce in the summer.

Crystal Palace will be without Jordan Ayew and key midfielder Cheick Doucoure.

Nottingham Forest’s Willy Boly is among the club’s top ranked players on Whoscored but has lost his place in the starting 11. His absence alone might not be missed, but he is one of four defenders from Forest who will be at AFCON, leaving them short-staffed at the back.

Due to the numbers of players heading to AFCON, this competition gets the most notice among Premier League fans. But the Asian Cup is happening at the same time and will see some key absences including South Korean forwards Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan for Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well as Brighton’s Japanese star Kaoru Mitoma.

Some of these absences will cancel each other out, with Nottingham Forest’s first game with a weakened defense coming against a Brentford side with its main attackers absent, for example. But at the same time, most sides would prefer to play against a Liverpool side missing Salah or a Spurs side without Son.

Clubs are aware of these absences when they sign African or Asian players so they can’t really complain about missing players in January. But at the same time, FIFA could have mitigated the impact of these tournaments on club sides by arranging the international fixture calendar so that there is an international break at the same time as at least part of the Africa Cup of Nations and the Asian Cup.

With plenty of time to prepare, most Premier League clubs likely have a plan to deal with these absences, but other factors like injuries could see some teams shorthanded in January.

Players at these tournaments also won’t get a winter break, so even after they have returned to their clubs, AFCON and the Asian Cup could have an impact in terms of accumulated fatigue, which could affect performances for the rest of the season.