THE Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) begins on Saturday evening as hosts Ivory Coast open the tournament with their group game against Guinea-Bissau.

It will provide an immediate introduction to the dynamic of this tournament where more familiar names such as Sebastien Haller and Serge Aurier face Guinea-Bissau players who few will have watched before.

International football, and especially Afcon, offers different perspectives and experiences of the game that aren’t available in the bubble of “elite” European club football.

A whole host of star names from Europe’s top leagues will be taking part in this tournament, but Afcon tournaments are not just about these players and are defined by other factors.

Players like Mohamed Salah and Victor Osimhen will naturally play a big role, but they, and others of similar profile, are not the only driving forces in this tournament, and it is all the more interesting for it.

On the African continent, Afcon is almost on a par with the World Cup. Players come together from across the globe to play for their respective African nations and the region comes together to celebrate its unique place in the world of football.

And Afcon is unique. It is a tournament that celebrates a whole continent as well as individual nations in it.

It is one of the most geographically diverse tournaments in world football, covering the northern and southern hemispheres and incorporating some of the most environmentally rich countries in the world, with a diversity that ranges from desert to rainforest.

So often this richness has been taken advantage of by Western imperialism. Many countries still feel the impact of such meddling to this day, and a number are still subject to it in one way or another.

This has had a knock-on effect on domestic African football both in terms of affecting its resources to create robust domestic leagues, and seeing African countries turn into talent factories to supply players for Europe rather than for itself.

Despite such outside meddling, African footballing nations retain their own identities and through Afcon each can bring theirs to the table to celebrate themselves and others through the continent’s most popular sport.

This guarantee of African success, at least in a sporting sense, is what can make this tournament as appetising as the World Cup.

Each team brings their style of football, their strengths and weaknesses, as they feel out both familiar and unfamiliar foes.

There is an element of the unknown that brings curiosity and wonder, the type that might not be present in other tournaments where the majority of the players could be seen on TV week in and week out in one high-profile league or another.

Egypt, for example, are almost always among the favourites to win this unpredictable tournament, but their squads are usually made up mostly of players from the Egyptian Premier League.

Players such as Ahmed Abou El Fotouh and Mohamed Abdelmonem who caught the eye for Egypt at the last Afcon remained with Zamalek and Al Ahly respectively.

Even a player considered the greatest Egyptian footballer ever, Mohamed Aboutrika, is relatively unknown outside Africa.

Aboutrika won Afcon titles with Egypt at back-to-back tournaments in 2006 and 2008, missing out on their subsequent win in 2010 through injury.

The first of those titles was won on home soil featuring a squad, as usual, made up mostly of domestic-based players with a big contingent from Al Ahly, including Aboutrika himself.

The 2008 squad was again heavily reliant on domestic-based players, but with more of a spread across Al Ahly, Zamalek, and Ismaily.

The 2008 tournament, played in Ghana, also showed that the Egyptian players could be successful in a West African setting. This might provide some encouragement for this year’s group, which again boasts a large domestic and Al Ahly contingent, ahead of the tournament hosted by one of Ghana’s neighbours, Ivory Coast.

This tournament was originally due to be held in the summer of 2023 but was moved to the northern hemisphere winter to avoid the rainy season in Ivory Coast.

In recent years, Afcon decided to make the move from being a January-February tournament to one that takes place in the more usual Fifa international tournament slot of June-July.

It might be another move to appease European powers whose clubs regularly complain about losing players to Afcon, but there are some things even they can’t control.

Rainfall in the southern, coastal regions of the country registered as high as 243 mm within the space of 24 hours last June, causing floods and landslides.

At the other end of the scale, the next tournament, due to be held in Morocco in the summer of 2025 will no doubt have issues with sweltering heat.

Perhaps more than any other international tournament, the host country plays a big role in what an Afcon tournament looks and feels like, both on the ground and to the rest of the world via TV. It can affect everything from the style of football that prevails, to determining which countries can best adapt to the conditions. Sometimes having domestic-based players rather than an overload of players from European clubs can be a bonus.

Every game of this year’s tournament will be shown on Sky Sports but thankfully the BBC have also picked up a handful of games in the group stages, including Saturday evening’s opener, as well as two games from the last 16, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the final.

Tune in for European-based stars such as Salah (Egypt and Liverpool), Osimhen (Nigeria and Napoli) and Mohammed Kudus (Ghana and West Ham); but stick around for the likes of Abdelmonem (Egypt and Al Ahly), Peter Shalulile (Namibia and Mamelodi Sundowns), and Percy Tau (South Africa and Al Ahly).