Waiting for the axe to fall after elimination

African Cup of Nations: Matthew Spiro highlights the difficulties facing managers in Africa

As the African Cup of Nations rolls on to the knockout phase, several coaches are already in danger of losing their jobs after disappointing performances in Egypt .

Of the eight eliminated teams only Morocco and Angola look certain to offer reprieves to their beleaguered coaches, with Libya, Togo, South Africa, Zambia, Ghana and Zimbabwe all braced for change. Meanwhile, Cameroon's Artur Jorge, Ivory Coast boss Henri Michel and Hassan Shehata of Egypt may also be out of work if their teams lose in the quarter-finals, which get under way tomorrow.

There are few jobs that offer so little security as coaching an African national team. Expectations run so high in so many corners of the continent that anything other than a victory in the final on February 10th will almost certainly be regarded as a failure. For most African-based coaches, the job description runs far deeper than simply overseeing training and picking the team. Booking flights and hotels, sending off visa applications, negotiating and then distributing the players' wages are all duties that come under their remit.

The sight of Zambia's Kalusha Bwalya rounding up his squad at Charles de Gaulles Airport in Paris a fortnight ago was revealing.

Bwalya, a former African player of the year, looked more like a schoolteacher as he numbered off his players every five minutes and handed out loose change to those who wanted to buy chocolate from the vending machines. It is difficult to imagine Sven-Goran Eriksson performing similar tasks when England fly to Germany.

Bwalya is a legendary figure in his homeland and is also vice-president of the Zambian FA, but his god-like status did not prevent the deputy sports minister from calling for his head after a 2-1 defeat by Guinea .

One of the most durable coaches in Africa is Democratic Republic of Congo boss Claude LeRoy, but even the affable Frenchman has had his resolve tested in Egypt .

LeRoy threatened to resign the day before flying out because his players had not been paid their bonuses for qualifying. A last-minute intervention from Congo President Joseph Kabila apparently resolved the matter. But having guided the Simbas through the group stage, the 57-year-old revealed on Monday that the money had still not arrived and is now talking about boycotting tomorrow's quarter-final with Egypt.

LeRoy is well versed in the logistical and political problems in African football. He has already had spells in charge of Cameroon and Senegal, and had to overcome a mountain of problems during his early days with Congo .

"When I arrived the civil war had just finished and there were no structures in place," he said. "I've had to do virtually everything from scratch."

The enormity of his task quickly became evident. For his first World Cup qualifier, LeRoy arrived in Uganda with his team at 5am on the day of the game. No transport had been organised at the airport, no hotel booking had been made, no training facilities arranged and, remarkably, no one had brought along the team kit. LeRoy had to go out and buy makeshift shirts for his players.

As he recounted some of his amazing tales to journalists at the team hotel in Cairo this week, it became obvious he relishes his unusual work. "It's exciting because you don't know what will happen from one day to the next,"

Togo were a shambles in Egypt , however, and Keshi, having fallen out with his star striker Emmanuel Adebayor, is now at loggerheads with the Togolese FA. The Nigerian was being hailed a hero by fans dancing for joy on the streets of Lomé in October. Now those same people are calling for his head. But in Africa things tend to change quickly - especially if you are the coach of a national team.