Napoli's Sarri bemoans timing of AFCON: 'I would fight this in court'

Rome - With three of his first team players away in Gabon for the Africa Cup of Nations, frustrated Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri blasted the timing of the event as "absurd" on Friday.

"It's absurd to stage the Africa Cup of Nations in January," said Sarri, whose side is third in the Italian league ahead of its trip to AC Milan this weekend.

"We have been deprived of three players, which is monstrous," he said. "If I were president of the club I would fight this in the law courts to stop it."

The Africa Cup of Nations runs until Feb. 5, when the final and third place games are staged.

Tournament favourite Senegal's central defender Kalidou Koulibaly, Algerian left-back Faouzi Ghoulam, and Morocco striker Omar El Kaddouri are the three Napoli players concerned.

The African Football Confederation (CAF) previously bowed to European pressure when it switched its schedule so it would no longer clash with the World Cup or European Championships.

The last Cup of Nations took place in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012, before the new series began just a year later in South Africa in 2013 and 2015 in Equatorial Guinea.