Renard: CAF is happy Zambia's short reign is over

NELSPRUIT, South Africa (AP) -Zambia's French coach Herve Renard says the Confederation of African Football is probably happy that his team's Cup of Nations title defense came to an early end because it is "not sexy enough'' to play at the Confederations Cup.

After Zambia was eliminated on Tuesday, Renard says "it's the truth'' that the African football body would prefer another team to represent the continent at the World Cup warm-up tournament this year in Brazil.

Short of retaining its title in South Africa, Zambia's reign was always destined to be the shortest yet after CAF switched the Cup of Nations to odd years and played it back-to-back in 2012 and 2013.

That move robbed the 2012 title-winning Zambians of the African champion's regular right to play in the Confederations Cup.