Criminally moronic CAF add insult to injury... and death

There've been many reasons that Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou should be sacked. The quality of football on the continent has improved dramatically since the Cameroonian took over way back in 1988. He re-shaped the continent's premier club tournament into a more high profile African Champions League. The international African Nations Cup has dramatically gained in prestige and importance in the last two decades.

But under Hayatou's reign, CAF has spectacularly failed to capitalized on the increased interest in the Champions League and especially the Nations' Cup. The tournaments are almost impossible to find on television anywhere.

Despite intense interest outside the continent, the Nations Cup is only available in most countries via an expensive online scheme. I have no idea if the Champions League is available at all.

CAF has made some egregious decisions in awarding the Nations' Cup. Tournaments, such as the 2008 edition in Ghana, are often plagued by organizational difficulties. The continental body inexplicably awarded the 2012 Nations' Cup jointly to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, two of the most corrupt countries in the world, the latter being closed and repressive on a par with North Korea or Burma.

The awarding of the current year's tournament to Angola was less egregious, except for CAF allowing matches to be held in the unstable province of Cabinda, a decision which had deadly consequences.

A bus carrying the Togolese national team was attacked by Cabindan rebels as it crossed the border from Congo-Brazzaville into Cabinda, where it was playing first round matches. Three members of the Togolese entourage were killed and one of its goalkeepers seriously injured in the attack; naturally the other members of the team were badly shaken.

CAF and Angola's dictatorship initially tried the Kremlin approach, but denying that any attack took place at all. It was just a ruptured tire, they said. Because noise from a blown tire lasts 20 minutes.

Finally, the "organizers" admitted that the gun attack took place by placed blame squarely on the shoulders of the Togolese. They said Togo should've flown to the Angolan capital Luanda and then to Cabinda, rather than go overland. They gave no explanation of why they allowed tournament matches to be held in a place that was not safe to drive in.

After some discussion, the Togolese government ordered its shell-shocked players to come home, since the criminally negligent authorities in Angola and CAF quite obviously couldn't guarantee anyone's security.

Rather than an apology for forcing players to play in a war-afflicted province or showing understanding toward witnesses to a massacre, CAF has incomprehensibly suspended Togo from the next two Nations' Cups.

CAF is complicit via negligence in the deaths of the three members of Togo's delegation. And yet it's Togo who is punished for being the only ones who gave a damn about their players' safety. Or maybe Togo's fault is having been stupid enough to trust the judgment of the morons at CAF and the Angolan dictatorship's spinmeisters.

For this whole series of criminal stupidity, Issa Hayatou and the entire CAF executive committee should be sacked... to say nothing of lifting the ban of the victims of this whole affair, the Togolese team.

African Nations' Cup must be withdrawn from Cabinda

As reported here yesterday, militants in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda attacked a bus carrying the Togolese national soccer team, killing the bus driver, the team's press officer and an assistant coach. Some reports have indicated that a fourth victim, one of the team's goalkeepers, has also died. The team was on its way from a training camp to the African Nations Cup tournament, which is being hosted in four venues in Angola, including Cabinda city.

Despite unconscionable pressure from PR-conscious Angolan officials and representatives from the African soccer confederation CAF, the Togolese team has withdrawn from the tournament.

Cabinda, which is separated from mainland Angola by DR Congo's territory, is the country's oil heartland and is also the source of a small but violent separatist movement. Given that Cabinda's instability was no secret, it was criminally irresponsible for the tournament organizers to schedule matches in Cabinda and for CAF to allow it.

Officials have already stated that the Nations' Cup will go on. However for the security of fans, the press and players, matches scheduled for Cabinda must be moved to the other venues in mainland Angola. This includes all matches in Group B (involving two of the continent's most prominent teams, Ivory Coast and Ghana, as well as Burkina Faso) as well as one quarterfinal match.

All yet, there is no indication that this blindingly obvious decision will be made. CAF already has the blood of four deaths on its hands. Does it want more?


Update: There is some speculation on Twitter that Ghana may also pull out.

Further updates: According to AFP, the Togolese players have decided to defy their government's decision and participate in the tournament. CAF has insisted stubbornly and stupidly that matches will be played as scheduled in Cabinda, despite the rebels announcing that they would step up military attacks.

Togolese national team shot

There are reports out (BBC, AP) that Togo's national soccer team's bus has been attacked by gunmen and several team members and staff have been injured. The team was traveling from Congo-Brazzaville, where it had been training, to Angola, for the upcoming African Nations Cup. The incident occurred in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, which is separated from the rest of Angola by a sliver of DR Congo territory. Cabinda has been plagued by militants fighting for the independence of the oil-rich enclave.

Football slavery

The BBC World Service's Assignment program has a documentary on how unscrupulous European clubs and agents prey on young African kids who dream of becoming professional soccer players and lure them into what is rightly described as 'football slavery.'

(The audio is here but will probably only be available at this link through next Wednesday.)

The UK Guardian ran an expose last year on the same scandal.

Nations Cup predictions

Just to ensure myself future embarrassment, here are my predictions for the African Nations Cup that opens today in Ghana. Though obviously I'm pulling for Guinea.

Advancing out of...
Group A: Ghana, Guinea
Group B: Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria
Group C: Egypt, Cameroon
Group D: Senegal, Angola

Quarterfinals
Ghana over Nigeria
Cameroon over Senegal
Egypt over Angola
Cote d'Ivoire over Guinea

Semifinals
Ghana over Cameroon
Egypt over Cote d'Ivoire

Final
Ghana over Egypt

Guinea's pipe dream

For a nation ranked as the world's most corrupt, as the third most unstable country in the world not at war, the new Guinean government sure has a lot of confidence. Last month, the government announced that it was going to seek nuclear power.

Last week, the government continued its grandiose delusionalism. The cabinet recently announced that Guinea was going to make a bid to host the 2016 African Nations Cup.

Construction began a few months ago on a new 50,000 seat stadium in a suburb of the capital Conakry, but this would be the only stadium in the country that would met the standards of the African soccer confederation (CAF) for hosting the continent's premier soccer tournament.

The country was in virtual meltdown earlier this year because of corruption and skyrocketing prices. Inflation is so bad that the country recently introduced 10,000 franc (FG) banknotes into circulation, worth about US$2.40. And the central bank is also planning to issue a 50,000 FG note. Electricity is virtually non-existent. Basic food prices are through the roof.

The new prime minister Lansana Kouyaté has generally gotten good marks. But if he's smart, he'll tell his ministers to stop wasting money and time preparing for a soccer tournament that no sane organization would award it and focus on restoring basic necessities to the population.

FIFA: most African countries don't have safe stadia

In a worrying sign for African soccer fans, FIFA says that only most of the countries on the continent do not have stadiums safe enough to host World Cup qualifiers. The sport's international governing body inspected venues in 50 countries and found only 18 nations had stadiums that met its safety standards.

FIFA also launched a project to install the hideous artificial turf in at least one stadium in each African country.

Gambian fans in visa snag

The Gambian Daily Observer newspaper has an interesting piece on the visa fiasco faced by soccer fans in the country. Over 200 supporters hoping to see their national team play in the Under-20 World Cup in Canada but were denied visas by the Canadian embassy in Accra, Ghana.

Apparently the initial anger at the Canadians was misplaced. The Observer (which I presume is a state-run or ruling party newspaper due to sycophantic references to 'the benevolent Gambian leader, Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh') reports that the national Department of State for Youth, Sports and Religious Affairs bungled the situation by sending visa applicants and passports to Accra rather than to the consulate in Dakar, Senegal, as they'd been instructed by Canadian officials.

Le foot, c'est moi!

This weekend, Guinea's national soccer team stunned Algeria by 2 goals to 0 in an African Nations Cup qualifier in Algiers. Guinea is virtually unbeatable in competitive matches at home, but their form has always been shaky away, particularly in North Africa.

The result was all the more surprising because, only a few days earlier, #1 goalkeeper Kémoko Camara quit the Syli national after being accused of exagerrating an injury. This led national team boss Robert Nouzaret to declare that the Guineans had 'no chance' against Algeria.

After the shock win, which put the Syli on top of their qualifying group, residents of the capital Conakry descended into the streets to celebrate. Ailing head of state Gen. Lansana Conté seized the opportunity to leave for a bit his hermetic existence to 'bathe in the crowd,' as Guinéenews elegantly put it.

Interesting that Gen 'Man of the People' Conté never decided to 'bathe in the crowd' during the contentious general strike earlier this year during which over 100 people were gunned down by insecurity forces.