Is Africa not a small continent in World football? Yes it is, backing it up they've the most wack Leagues and play their professional football on potatoe farms and cattle ranches - Lfc Rumour
Jurgen Klopp has moved to defend comments made about the Africa Cup of Nations, after labelling it a "little tournament" on Tuesday.
Klopp was quizzed in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday about the lack of international breaks over the next few months.
While the Liverpool manager was relieved to see the back of them until March 2022, he reminded those in attendance about the AFCON in Cameroon at the turn of next year.
Liverpool are set to lose Naby Keita, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane for the month-long tournament from the first week in January and Klopp clashed with a reporter from Africa after the 2-0 win over Porto.
Klopp clarified his comments as ironic and slammed the journalist in question for taking his Tuesday comments out of context.
Here's how the exchange unfolded.
Reporter: Hi Jurgen, during your last pre-match presser, you deliberately called the Africa Cup of Nations a "little tournament". I think it's an insult to the players, an insult to the fans, an insult to the people on the continent. I think you owe the continent an apology.
Klopp: "It's all good, I didn't mean it like that. I don't know why you understand it like that to be honest."
Reporter: That was what you said, I listened to the presser and you said the continent in Africa [is little], that is what you said...I think you owe the continent an apology.
Klopp : "I didn't mean it like that, come on...So I was not even close to it being the idea in my mind that I want to talk about the AFCON as a 'little tournament' or about the continent of Africa as a little continent, not at all.
"What I meant was, if you watch the full press conference, then you might have understood it the right way if you wanted to because I said there are no international breaks until March now.
"I said 'oh there's a little tournament in January' and I didn't mean a little tournament, I was just saying it's still a tournament, it's ironic. It's still a tournament, a big one. We [will] lose our best players to that tournament..."
Reporter: But you wouldn't say that in Europe, you wouldn't say a 'little tournament in Europe' I know what you mean and I understand the context.
Klopp : "I am not a native speaker but if you want to understand me wrong, you can do that all the time.
"I really don't...I know that I would never think like this. I don't understand why you thought this to be honest, but that's really not OK as I would never do that.
"But that is it now. It was not my intention but you made something [more] of it, so that is not so cool to be 100 per cent honest."
The ju^k pressman identified himself as Ojoro Babatunde 'OJB Sport'😄 from Nigeria.