Sports
Cameroon are Africa's champions
Despite losing to Egypt 0-1 in a preliminary match, Cameroon qualified for the finals of this year's 14th Africa Cup of Nations contest where they beat Nigeria 3-1 to emerge as the continental champions.It was a victory that has finally added Cameroon's name to the short list of elite nations that have won the cup. It also confirmed the supremacy of West African soccer on the continent which had been apparent in the impressive representation of five West African countries out of eight finalists.
These are Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo with only Algeria, Egypt and Malawi emerging from the North and Central Africa.
On a sour note however, Nigeria's 'conspiracy' with Algeria to play a fixed match that robbed Malawi of a possible chance of qualifying for the finals brought much discredit to West African football.
In addition to their reputation as two African oil exporting nations, Nigeria and Algeria have a common bond in the nearness of their seven letter names. Now a third factor binds them more closely. Algeria, which in the last world cup competition in Spain, became the victim of a conspiracy between Germany and Austria in playing a fixed drawn game found it necessary to hatch a similar conspiracy with Nigeria.
That Nigeria was beaten by Cameroon in the final match may be interpreted as the work of God who abhors cheating. But win or lose, Nigeria and Algeria brought shame to African football and deserved the fine of $6,000 imposed on each of them by the African Football Confederation. In addition, none of the two teams qualified for the 'Fair Play' honours which were conferred on the best behaved team in the tournament.
Several AFC delegates who had pressed for stronger sanctions wanted to deduct the points gained from the 'fixed' match but this view was firmly rejected by AFC President Ynakat- chew Tessema who said there was no provision for such technical sanctions.
But there was enough venom in the AFC verdict presented by Mr Tessema after a three hour meeting. He said: "We had a contract with the paying public and with foreign television free stations which we did not honour. This is the first time that such a thing has happened in Africa. We are a new continent and want to show that one cannot defy sportsmanship with impunity."
This incident apart, the 14th African Cup tournament recorded a lot of drama. First was the failure of host nation, Ivory Coast, to qualify for the finals. The Elephants, as they are called, crashed out of the competition after losing to Egypt and Cameroon in their group. Their lone victory was over the Togo national side whom they walloped 3-0. If the best team emerged from West Africa, the worst also came from West Africa. Togo's defeat by Cameroon, Ivory Coast and draw with Egypt represented just that.
Defending champions Ghana's Black Stars will remember the Ivory Coast contest for their worst performance in the history of the tournament. For not only did they lose their opening match to their traditional rivals the Green Eagles of Nigeria, but also went on to lose more ignominiously to Egypt 0-2 and thereby failed to qualify for the semi finals stage of the competition.
While Malawi will be remembered as having participated, Egypt by defeating Cameroon and Ivory Coast in preliminary matches, did enough to prove that they are worthy representatives of Africa at the summer Olympic games in Los Angeles. Their 9-10 defeat by Nigeria in their semi-final match represented the highest and most dramatic result recorded in the entire tournament.
Ivorians watched cup final
Ivorians watched the final of the 14th African Nation's cup between the Green Eagles and Cameroon's "indomitable Lions" in Abidjan on Sunday free of charge.It was Mr Felix Houphouet-Boigny's their 78-year-old president present to them for their good conduct despite the country's early exit from the tournament.
Ban on Kumasi stadium
The Kumasi Sports Stadium has been banned for all soccer matches organised by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for a two-year period. CAF's reason was that the organisation of the final of Africa clubs championship match between Kotoko and Egypt's El-Ahly National fell below CAF standards.It said security arrangements at the stadium were poor which led to the uncontrollable invasion of the pitch by jubilant Kotoko supporters soon after the match forcing the presentation ceremony to delay.
CAF's decision was announced at the end of its two-day pre-final tournament meeting of the organising committee in Abidjan.
