THE AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS (AFCON) may have reached a crucial stage, but there is a very dark shadow hanging over it in the form of the loss of at least eight people at the Cameroon versus Comoros game.
While the hosts were winning through to the last eight, there was a crush at the south end of the Olembe Stadium, allegedly caused by a closed gate, a rush of people and below-par policing. As one local journalist told the BBC: “I have been to football matches in seven African countries and every time I make the same observation: there are so many police officers and so little safety.”
Before the event even began, there were misgivings about AFCON being held in Cameroon, a country with a very low rate of covid vaccination and one with pockets of political and social unrest. They have gamely tried to manage a trouble-free tournament, but apparently, a similar incident was only just avoided in the early group games. It wasn’t the first time tragedy has hit AFCON for in 2010, Togo’s team bus was attacked in Angola and three people were killed.
In such circumstances, football seems relatively unimportant and trivial, but AFCON continues and CAF must be hoping that on-pitch events dominate the headlines in the next week or two. There have already been some bizarre incidents, such as the referee who blew for time with four minutes remaining and the brave display by a covid-hit Comoros side who had to improvise in order to field a keeper. Covid, of course, has been a major obstacle and more than 25% of the 24 participants have been hit by the virus. Furthermore, VAR seems to have taken an age at times.
There have been some premature departures from the party, such as holders Algeria, who earned one point from their three games against Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast. Ghana were also a group stage casualty, finishing below Morocco, Gabon and first-timers Comoros.
So far, though, classic contests have been in short supply, but there has been no lack of enthusiasm from the spectators who provide the usual colourful backdrop for AFCON.
Goals have been very scarce, the average per game is just 1.82 which is lower than just about every major competition in recent times, but this is hardly a new development, the 2019 version had a sub-two goals average (1.96) and 2017 was just over two (2.06). There’s no shortage of decent strikers, but big names like Mo Salah (Egypt) and Sadio Mané (Senegal) have only three goals between them. Larger-than-life character Vincent Aboubakar of Cameroon leads the way with six goals having scored in every game so far.
Cameroon’s hopes are growing by the day and they come up against debutants The Gambia in the quarter-final in Douala. They are favourites to go through to the last four but they will be aware that Tunisia were beaten 1-0 in their group clash with the Scorpions.
Tunisia, the Eagles of Carthage, made it into the quarter-finals after beating one of the favourites, Nigeria in the round 16. They will play Burkina Faso in Guaroa.
Highly fancied Senegal, who have never won AFCON, face Equatiorial Guinea in the next round after disposing of Cape Verde, who had two men sent off, including a goalkeeper. Senegal have yet to concede in their four matches, perhaps understandable given they have Chelsea’s Édouard Mendy between the posts.
The tie of the round is arguably Egypt versus Morocco which takes place in the Ahidjo stadium in Yaoundé. Egypt, the most successful AFCON nation, have been a little goal-shy so far and have netted just twice in four games, relying on penalties to get through against Ivory Coast. Morocco, who have Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi in their squad, have scored twice in every game except their opener with Ghana.
Of the last eight, five of the countries are still in with a chance of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. One of the five two-legged ties that will determine who goes to Qatar later this year is Egypt versus Senegal, and that may well be the final of AFCON 2021 on February 6. Cameroon may have something to say about that, though.
GAME OF THE PEOPLE 