Africa Cup of Nations:The English Premier League's dressingrooms became quieter places this week after almost 40 players left their clubs for Ghana and the African Cup of Nations, a tournament that ignites national pride but also sparks despair in managers who find themselves short of players.

Among other Premier League managers Everton's David Moyes led the now common calls for the competition, which kicks off on January 20th, to be moved to the summer. His protests are not surprising as Everton will lose three first-team players this month.

The Nigerian Football Association gave Jospeph Yobo and Yakubu Ayegbeni permission to play in Everton's League Cup semi-final tie at Chelsea but there was no such dispensation for Steven Pienaar who was told by South Africa to ignore his club manager's demands and join up with the squad immediately. Moyes's desire to keep players for as long as possible is born out of past experiences; he knows the effect a New Year exodus can have.

In January 2004, he lost Yobo to the competition in Tunisia. The Nigerian was a regular in Everton's defence and without him the side lost four league games, including a 4-3 reverse to Manchester United and a 3-0 loss to Birmingham.

Everton had only conceded three or more goals in three of their 29 previous matches that season, without Yobo, they did it twice in five days.

Yobo's return stabilised a side that was close to being relegated, they lost just once in their next nine games, kept three clean sheets and managed to stay in the division by just six points. Had the African Cup of Nations been longer, or Nigeria progressed further than the semi-finals, Everton could now be in the Championship.

Bolton lost four players to the 2006 tournament, held in Egypt, including El Hadji Diouf. The Senegal forward's departure coincided with the club's Uefa Cup tie at home to Marseille.

They drew 0-0 before losing the second leg 2-1, a result that ended their first European campaign. Diouf also aggravated a hernia in Egypt, which meant he could not play again until late April. Bolton failed to qualify for Europe that season by seven points.

Diouf could have been an important source of goals then and could be even more so now should the club, as expected, sell Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea. But Diouf will be on international duty again and Senegal's gain could prove to be Bolton's ruin.

They are only three points off the relegation zone and the loss of two regular strikers this month could see them slide into the bottom three.

"The African Cup of Nations is never going to move. It makes life difficult for Premier League clubs because more teams are taking more players from Africa," the former Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce said last week. "I don't think Fifa will contemplate shifting the tournament because it is such a big thing for the African boys and it's when they want it."

The African Cup of Nations, being held for the 26th time this year, is held in January through necessity. Most grounds in the continent do not have floodlights meaning matches have to be played during the day, impossible during the searing heat of June and July across much of the continent.

There is an obvious retort to managers who complain about scheduling: stop buying African players. According to a Uefa survey, 204 African players were playing in Europe in 2006, 24 in England. That figure surged to 40 last year and the success of the likes of Didier Drogba at Chelsea and Kolo Toure at Arsenal will only see more arrive.

As Joe Jordan, Portsmouth's assistant manager, said as his club lost four players to this year's Cup of Nations, "We're signing players from Africa because of their ability and that outweighs the handicap of losing them for a few weeks."

The African Cup of Nations' effect on the Premier League title race has been negligible and this is perhaps why Arsene Wenger remains calm despite Arsenal regularly seeing a January exodus.

"I consider the players who go away to be injured," Wenger said. "The day they return, they are no longer injured and I put them back in my team."

Ghana bound: Premier League players at the Africa Cup of Nations

ArsenalKolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue (Ivory Coast), Alexandre Song (Cameroon)

BirminghamCity Richard Kingson (Ghana), Mehdi Nafti and Radhi Jaidi (Tunisia).

Blackburn RoversAaron Mokoena (South Africa).

Bolton WanderersEl Hadji Diouf (Senegal), Abdoulaye Meite (Ivory Coast).

ChelseaMikel John Obi (Nigeria), Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou (Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Ghana).

EvertonJoseph Yobo and Yakubu Ayegbeni (Nigeria), Steven Pienaar (South Africa).

LiverpoolNabil El Zhar (Morocco), Mohamed Sissoko (Mali).

MiddlesbroughMohamed Shawky (Egypt).

Newcastle UtdObafemi Martins (Nigeria), Geremi (Cameroon), Abdoulaye Faye and Habib Beye (Senegal).

PortsmouthPape Bouba Diop (Senegal), Nwankwo Kanu and John Utaka (Nigeria), Sulley Muntari (Ghana).

ReadingAndre Bikey (Cameroon), Emerse Fae (Ivory Coast), Ibrahima Sonko (Senegal).

SunderlandDickson Etuhu (Nigeria).

TottenhamDidier Zokora (Ivory Coast).

West Ham UtdJohn Pantsil (Ghana), Henri Camara (Senegal).

Wigan AthleticSalomon Olembe (Cameroon), Julius Aghahowa (Nigeria).

2008 Africa Cup of Nations

The 26th African Cup of Nations, hosted by Ghana, will begin on Sunday week (January 20th), with the final on February 10th.

The 16 qualifiers are divided into four groups.

Group A -Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Namibia.

Group B -Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Nigeria.

Group C -Cameroon, Egypt, Sudan, Zambia.

Group D -Angola, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia.

Each team plays the other three sides in its group, with the top two countries in each group qualifying for the quarter-finals.