At the end of the two week battle in Ghana, between 8 teams in the West African Football Union, there is a $100,000 prize money dangling and like a Sherry Mango ripe for the plucking.

Unlike any other time, two of the regions most successful teams; Ghana and Nigeria, will vie for the honor of being crowned best in West Africa.

Not just that, there is also the matter of bragging rights; given the rivalry between the two countries across virtually every field – even cuisine.

Yet, before we go into any intricate analysis about which side is favorite on Sunday (in another article), permit a brief evaluation of the competition.

In its long history of irregular dates and name change, this edition of the WAFU tournament stands out for the amount of publicity it garnered and importantly the quality of competition displayed on the pitch.

The latter is the exact reason why at some point the fever of the competition caught on and it is important to applaud the FAs, Coaches and players for giving 100 percent or nearly.

Not everything was perfect though and it seemed like the organizers bent, stooped and went out of their way to have some teams feature in the competition i.e. Nigeria.

There were fixture adjustments to placate Nigeria because the Eagles arrived a day or just over 18 hours before their qualifying game against Sierra Leone.

Hopefully, that delay also had nothing to do with the missing player name on some jerseys while the likes of Anthony Okpotu, Rabiu Ali and a few others had theirs boldly printed.

You would think there’s some kind of competition regulation specifically to address the teams’ uniforms and features – or not.

Then there was the question of the change of venue.

The Sponsors/Organizers felt strongly opposed to using the Essipong Stadium in Takoradi because of what it described as “structural defects”.

Thus the Nduom Sports Stadium in Elmina was recommended for the Nigeria v Sierra Leone game.

However, the match was eventually played at the Cape Coast Stadium; the grounds have hosted more games than NSS since the group stage matches.

The Cape Coast Stadium may look good for the cameras, but it’s an enduring pain for players.

Dry grass and Patches the size of a basketballer’s foot disrupt the short passing game some of the teams prefer.

But hey! TIA… This is Africa we adapt.

Overall though, there are many aspects of organisation the next host – maybe Ghana – could look into to raise the bar.

Also, hopefully the cash strapped regional FAs need to improve the purse of the Union (their’s as well) to help the investment in the quality of football we see in subsequent editions.

That said, it has been a good show so far in the Cape.