Reuters Soccer Blog

FIFA fails to act in naturalisation row

FIFA has failed to act on allegations that Burkina Faso flouted rules on fielding foreign-born players on their way to qualifying for the African Nations Cup.

In doing so, soccer’s governing body has potentially opened the floodgates for other teams to do the same.

Burkina Faso’s campaign included home-and-away wins over Namibia, who alleged that in both games the Burkinabe fielded Russian-based Cameroon-born defender Herve Zengue.

The Burkinabe said Zengue had obtained nationality by marrying one of their nationals. However, FIFA statutes also say that a player must have lived in his adopted country for at least five years before he can represent their country.

Nambia, adamant that Zengue did not meet this criteria, saw their protests brushed away on a technicality with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) saying, among other things, that the complaint had been lodged on the wrong type of paper.

Namibia angrily rejected this and said that the least CAF could have done was to have looked at the merits of the case.

Namibia said that, under CAF’s own rules, they should be awarded 3-0 wins in each match.

Egyptian soccer at a crossroads as Bradley jets in

Cairo giants Al Ahli’s elimination from the African Champions League at the weekend is the latest blow for soccer in Egypt and their golden generation.

Al Ahli failed to reach the semi-final stage after drawing 1-1 at home with Esperance of Tunisia in their final group game in the Egyptian capital on Friday.

It was Egypt’s last chance of salvaging some success from what has been a terrible year for their football.

They have gone from an unprecedented three successive African Nations Cup titles to missing out on defending their title at the next edition, to be hosted in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon early next year.

Al Ahli’s long-standing dominance at club level is also at an end while Egypt’s other major club Zamalek surprisingly did not even make the group phase.

In all likelihood, it signals the end of an all-conquering generation who rewrote the continent’s record books.

Egypt’s national team, close to officially naming American Bob Bradley as coach, and Ahli have perhaps kept faith for too long with players like Mohamed Aboutrika, Mohamed Barakat and Wael Gomaa who ruled the roost for almost a decade, but no longer have the aura of invincibility they so long enjoyed.

Politics plays its part at the African Nations Cup

Being in Cabinda for the African Nations Cup should have been fun. At first, it was not, to say the least. The Togo team bus came under fire, with the assistant coach and a press officer being shot to death by a group of separatists as they were on their way to Cabinda from Pointe Noire, Congo.

It was only after long talks and multiple changes of minds that the Sparrowhawks decided to leave the Angolan northern enclave to fly back home and mourn their dead.

We would get calls from players saying they wanted to leave — that was on Saturday. Calls from the same players saying they wanted to stay after all — that was on Sunday.

Eventually, the prime minister got the last word, urging the Togo team to come back home. Until the last minute, some players tried to stay in Angola.

A plane sent by Togo touched down at Cabinda airport but it took off to Lome with the players on board only 10 hours later.

Angolan and Togolese officials locked themselves in a Cabinda airport office for hours as the host nation did all it could to try and persuade Togo to stay.

Another Angola collapse and crowds could plummet

African Nations Cup organisers will be bundle of nerves over the next 24 hours, contemplating the fate of host nation in the tournament.

Angola blew a phenomenal four goal lead in Sunday’s opening match against Mali and now look vulnerable to the prospect of early elimination if they fail to beat Malawi on Thursday (1830 GMT).

The 50,000 spectators at the new November 11 Stadium were stunned by the capitulation of their team, seemingly coasting home to the most positive of starts with just over 10 minutes to go before collapsing like a deck of cards and handing Mali an improbable point in a 4-4 draw.

Classic watching for the neutrals but heartbreak for the locals, and real concern for the organisers.

Angola are not given much chance of winning this Nations Cup but it was hoped that they would certainly be competitive, thereby energising a real fervour around the event.

Poor host teams seem plentiful these days. Little is expected of South Africa in six months’ time at the World Cup and both Austria and Switzerland departed Euro 2008 early.

UPDATE: Should the African Nations Cup be called off?

UPDATE:  The death toll has risen to three. The bus driver died on Friday and an assistant coach and press officer died on Saturday. Togo appear to have pulled out. 

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African Nations Cup organisers are adamant that the tournament will go ahead in Angola despite Friday’s ambush of the Togo team bus.

The bus had just entered the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, where separatists have waged a three-decade long war, when it came under heavy gunfire. Players said that the attack lasted for around 20 to 30 minutes.

Local organisers (COCAN) criticised the Togolese for the incident.

“The rules are clear: no team should travel by bus. I don’t know what led them to do this. The incident would not have happened in the city,” said Virgilio Santos, an official with COCAN.

African Nations Cup may be a tough ask for foreign visitors

Hosting major sports events is usually seen as a golden opportunity to showcase the country, improve the infrastructure and attract foreign visitors. Angola, which has spent an estimated $1 billion to stage this month’s African Nations Cup, seems to be an exception.

Rather perversely, the former Portuguese colony appears to be doing little to help foreign visitors get in. From my own experience, Angola has not eased its byzantine visa regulations for would-be Nations Cup visitors. Accredited journalists are among those who have missed out because the promised Letter of Invitation from the organising committee — necessary to get the treasured visa — was either sent too late or went to the embassy in the wrong country.

As for visiting fans, they may as well forget it unless they started planning a long time ago. Normal visa applications can take three months to process, even if the applicant manages to satisfy all criteria (and it’s not always clear what they are). One embassy official in Berne, Switzerland, demanded a swine flu vaccination. When told that previous host nations had been more accommodating, she said proudly:  “But this is Angola.”

Fans from Zambia are lucky, though – they are the only ones of the 15 visiting teams who do not need visas.

But, even if supporters manage to get into the country, where would they stay and how would they get around? Luanda has no taxi service and almost no buses – just notoriously reckless and overcrowded minivans called “candongeiros”.

Overland travel is deemed inadvisable and a worrying number of Angolan airlines feature on the European Union’s safety blacklist. The country has a chronic shortage of hotels, which are booked up months in advance even when the there are no international football tournaments being staged.

The whole scenario will do little to counter the feeling some voiced at the last edition two years ago, that the Nations Cup is run for officials rather than players and fans. Claude LeRoy was coach of host nation Ghana then and the Frenchman (now with Oman) suggested more effort had been put into the seats for visiting dignitaries than the pitch at Accra’s main stadium. “The first thing is not the quality of the armchair in the VIP room but it is the quality of the pitch,” he said.