Nations Cup: African Soccer at Its Zany Best

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Feb. 11, 2002 12 AM PT

The latest edition of the African Nations Cup--soccer’s most improbable championship--reached its climax Sunday when two World Cup-bound teams, Cameroon and Senegal, met in the final in Bamako, Mali.

The sides played for two scoreless hours before Cameroon, gold-medal winner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, prevailed, 3-2, on penalty kicks. The Indomitable Lions thus became the first team in 37 years to successfully defend its African championship.

Sunday’s title game marked the conclusion of three bizarre weeks during which strange behavior, not to mention a malaria outbreak, often overshadowed the matches.

As recently as Thursday, for example, suspicions of witchcraft sparked unseemly scenes before Cameroon’s semifinal game against the host nation, Mali.

When Cameroon’s players and coaches were inspecting the field an hour or so before kickoff, police suddenly rushed assistant coach Thomas Nkono, the Indomitable Lions’ World Cup goalkeeper in 1982 and 1990, and forced him to the ground, kicking and screaming.

According to an Agence France-Presse account, Nkono “was handcuffed and led away down the players’ tunnel, at one point with his tracksuit trousers pulled around his ankles.” The police, local journalists said, apparently believed that Nkono had purposely dropped an object onto the field that they believed was a black-magic charm intended to help Cameroon. The 50,000 Mali fans in the packed stadium cheered when one of the policemen retrieved the unidentified object and held it aloft.

Witchcraft remains a common feature of African soccer, and some teams actually employ witchdoctors when preparing for significant matches or tournaments.

Bidoung Mpkatt, Cameroon’s minister for sport, scoffed at the idea that Nkono had been up to similar mischief.

“Lucky charms don’t play football,” he said “The truth is on the pitch.” And so it proved. After initially refusing to go ahead with the game, Cameroon did so and won easily, 3-0.

The witchcraft incident added a diplomatic touch on Friday when Alpha Oumar Konare, Mali’s president, apologized for the actions of the police.

“It was a gesture that we really appreciated,” Cameroon Coach Winfried Schafer said. “Mali owed us an apology and we received it from their leading citizen.” Nkono, however, remained upset.

“It was an outrageous attack, I’m very angry about it,” he told Reuters. “These sort of incidents cause great harm to the image of Africa.

“Can you imagine [former French star and coach] Michel Platini walking out with the French team before a match in Spain and being given the same treatment. Impossible.”

It turned out the Nkono was not without blame himself. Mustapha Fahmy, secretary general of the Confederation of African Football, on Saturday announced that CAF had suspended Nkono for one year for not wearing the correct accreditation, and that it was this that had sparked the police action.

Senegal plays defending champion France, Denmark and Uruguay in the World Cup, while Cameroon’s opponents will be Germany, Ireland and Saudi Arabia.

Nigeria Infighting

Senegal, which will open the 2002 World Cup against France in Seoul, South Korea, on May 31, ousted Nigeria from the African Nations Cup, adding to the woes of another World Cup-bound team.

Nigeria will play Argentina, England and Sweden in the so-called “group of death” in Japan, but the team’s 2-1 overtime loss in the semifinals has not demoralized players as much as frequent clashes with their own soccer federation.

Nigeria’s federation officials interfere constantly with the team, firing coaches at the proverbial drop of a hat.

Coach Shaibu Amodu might be the next to go, even though he remains defiant.

“I am not making any excuses,” he said. “If Nigerians are not happy with us, they should kindly accept my apologies. It would have been great going to the World Cup as African champions. But it was not to be and it is not the end of the world.

“Everybody must have learned from this tournament and this experience will certainly help us for the World Cup.”

On Saturday, Nigeria defeated Mali, 1-0, on a goal by Yakubu Aiyegbeni to take third place in the tournament.

South Africa Critics

Another coach on the firing line--at least from the media--is South Africa’s Carlos Queiroz, whose team was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Mali.

South Africa will play Slovenia, Spain and Paraguay in the first round of the World Cup, and Queiroz, formerly coach of Portugal, has been lambasted for his team selections.

“He has not picked players on current form as he promised he would,” said Emmanuel Cele of Johannesburg’s City Press newspaper. “Instead he has relied on his favorite overseas pros, many of whom are struggling at their clubs.

“And his priorities have been all wrong. He spent the whole year in Europe traveling to negotiate the release of players for national team duties. Yet, when these players are invited to play for South Africa, they never show up.”

Queiroz got a vote of confidence, however, from South African soccer federation member Mohamed Mubarak.

“The South African media has been very unfair on the coach,” he told Agence France-Presse. “They have been so negative, and that has unsettled him. But he will be with us up to the World Cup.”

On Saturday, Nigeria defeated Mali, 1-0, on a goal by Yakubu Aiyegbeni to take third place in the tournament.

Tunisia Woe

Tunisia, the last of Africa’s five World Cup participants, performed worst of all in the African Nations Cup, failing to win a game or score a goal.

Coach Henri Michel’s squad was knocked out in the first round and now faces the unenviable task of playing more-powerful Belgium, Russia and cohost Japan in the World Cup.

“We have weaknesses everywhere--tactically, physically, technically, mentally,” fumed Michel, who coached France to the semifinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

“We must now change our work ethic and our mentality. If we want to progress, there need to be changes in a lot of areas, how we operate, the way we act, the squad, the players, the officials.”

In short, everything but the coach. But that has a way of changing, too.

Liberia Farewell

The 23rd African Nations Cup marked the curtain call for Liberia’s George Weah, former world and European player of the year and a UNICEF ambassador.

Weah’s retirement from the national team at 35 was marked by an astonishing attack on the government of President Charles Taylor, whom he accused of fearing Weah’s popularity.

“The president of Liberia is against us,” Weah said. “The government is against us. They are jealous of us. I don’t deserve that. I have children who have still to grow up and go to school. I don’t want somebody to come and kill me because of my popularity.

“They have already burned my house down. They’ve repossessed my shops. It’s not safe, I don’t want something to happen to me before my children grow up. I’m afraid ... I don’t feel safe. The message of the president is that I am a target.”

In Africa, soccer is never a simple game. Politics and witchcraft go hand in hand with sport.

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African Champions

1957--Egypt

1959--Egypt

1962--Ethiopia

1963--Ghana

1965--Ghana

1968--Democratic Republic of Congo

1970--Sudan

1972--Congo

1974--DR Congo