Voters don't hold the AFCON and even the Asian cup and Gold cup, in the same regard as a few others and it significantly affects their player's chances of winning the Balon D'or.
That's 100% false. All winners of those tournaments got themselves a huge boost of Ballon d'Or votes. Even the Asian Cup boosted Younes Mahmoud into 29th place when Iraq won it.
Carragher's words aren't offensive as much as they are wrong. AFCON may actually end up being THE decisive factor in some cases as it is a voting competition where most people involved in voting don't really watch as much football as you'd think so they look at the end of year/season stats thus having an AFCON is a foot in the race.
RE: CARRAGHER AND HIS AFCON RAP?