2007 Men's African Nations Championship:

9 teams compete for a World Cup berth
Durban, South Africa, September 16, 2007-: Nine African Men teams will start the competition on sixteenth African Nations Championship known to start at Durban, South Africa on Sunday for the African crown in the most prestigious CAVB competition and also for the lone African Berth at the 2007 World Cup in Japan next November which will be secured by the winners of the cup.

All the continental big forces will compete at Tongate Hall in Durban seeking both goals including the defending Champions Egypt who represented Africa in the last World Cup in Japan 2003, the 2005 Grand Champions cup and the 2006 World Championship in Japan. Egypt will seek their fifth title in the history of this competition.

With their well organized preparation programme the last competition runner up Tunisia will be a great contenders for the trophy with a mixture of the experienced players led by the efficient setter Ghazi Guidara and the new blood injected by the Italian Head coach Antonio Jacobe like Ayman Ben Brick and Hesham Kaabi. Tunisia carries the African record of the number of victories with 8 trophies under their belt.

The organizers South Africa want to use the spectators and their own court to achieve their first ever victory. They will be led technically by the Egyptian head coach Abdel Hameed El Wassimy who made a dramatic improvement in the results since he took over the responsibility in 2003.

Other big favorites will be the two times champions Cameroon who won the bronze medal in 2005 as they will use a professional line up with most of the European based players specially in the French league.

With their last minute registration, the last All Africa Games semifinalists Kenya wants to follow the footsteps of their women counterparts who succeed to win the Women's title on their homelands early this month to qualify to the World Cup as they will use the same line up led by the efficient spiker Philip Mayo who players now in Bulgaria.

Other teams competing are Rwanda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

The drawing of lots held at Durban put the two big favorites Egypt and Tunisia in the same pool B with Kenya, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Pool A will comprise the organizers South Africa along with Cameroon, Mozambique and Rwanda.

"We want to organize a successful competition that qualifies the best team to the prestigious FIVB event this year." CAVB first Vice President Tubby Reddy stated before the onset of the competition. "I hope that the competition will reflect the great jump of our sports towards the world level in the last few years." He added.