But for Ted Dumitru, the South African coach, his termination papers were in the same envelope as his accreditation for the African Cup of Nations.

No matter what the 69year-old Romanian achieves in Egypt over the next couple of weeks, his tenure will be one of the shortest of any international football manager. "I can confirm that Ted will not be coaching Bafana Bafana after the tournament, " the South African FA (SAFA) chief executive Raymond Hack said. "A new coach will be appointed, probably by the end of February."

Which makes for an interesting situation. Should South Africa repeat their success of 1996, when they won the African Cup of Nations, they will still dispense with their manager.

But then this is African football, where politics and corruption are never far from the surface. Dumitru himself must realise what goes around comes around. When the national captain, Blackburn's Aaron Mokoena, was in mid-air to join his teammates in the Johannesburg training camp on 3 January, Dumitru held a vote among the players in which he asked them to come up with a new captain. They decided to go with Sibusiso Zuma, who plays in the German Bundesliga.

On arrival, Dumitru and Mokoena publicly embraced;

in the car on the way to the team hotel the Romanian broke the news and the pair haven't spoken again . . . apart from a highly-personal war of words played out in the media, with Mokoena declaring he'll never play for his country while the present manager is there.

He won't have to wait long.

On Thursday, the fax rang in Hack's SAFA office and Terry Venables's application came sliding out. Venables is deadly serious about replacing Dumitru and the big lure is that South Africa will host the 2010 World Cup, so there's no need to worry about qualifying. Of course, Brian Kerr's name has already been linked to the post. The SAFA are believed to be offering the new man a four-year-contract . . . though considering the country has had 12 managers in the last 13 years there's a real possibility that the new man will not see the end of his tenure.

"The applications haven't been from Mickey Mouse people, " Hack said. So, not only will Dumitru be out of a job in a couple of weeks, but SAFA even advertised the position before a ball has been kicked in the African Cup of Nations.

The tournament itself is huge in continental terms.

Sixteen teams will converge on Egypt, with the hosts themselves looking to win the competition for the fifth time.

But they are not the team or individuals on everyone's lips.

Ranked 23rd in the world . . .

though they didn't qualify for Germany 2006 . . . Cameroon are Africa's highest-ranked side and with Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o their most likely source of goals the Indomitable Lions are worthy favourites.

While the World Cup qualification threw up some staggering results . . . Angola, Togo, Tunisia, Ghana and the Ivory Coast will all be in Germany at the expense of Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa et al . . . it seems fair to suggest that the big guns will perform in Egypt.

Ghana will be without Chelsea's injured Michael Essien and the pocket battsleship forms such an integral part of the national team that it's difficult seeing them get through a group that also includes a rejuvenated Nigeria and Senegal.

It's hard to believe that El Hadji Diouf is still only 24, but the Bolton striker might finally make the headlines for the right reasons. They say he is the most popular footballer in Africa, but at the last Nations Cup he received a three-match ban for fighting after Senegal were eliminated by Tunisia in the quarterfinals.

Chelsea's Didier Drogba will fire the Ivory Coast attack, but they might need more than his goals to emerge from a group which includes Egypt and Morocco.

Ultimately, however, it might be worth having a closer look at the Nigerians. Players like Italian-based striker Obafemi Martins, Stephen Makinwa and Obinna Nsofor will all be making their Nations Cup debuts.

However, it's the Marseille left-back Taye Taiwoo, another who has made the step up from Nigeria's youth teams, who is spoken about in the most glowing of terms.

AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS Friday 20 January to Friday 10 February Live on Eurosport