Africa Cup 2022 - New scars and rays of hope

New scars and rays of hope

Eight people lost their lives in the stadium disaster in Yaounde. While tournament organizers and the continental federation sought to shrug off responsibility for the disaster, the Africa Cup played on - ending on a conciliatory note with a new tournament winner.

Text: Kurt Wachter

In the spacious fan zone next to the Place de l'Independance in Yaounde, meat skewers and plantains are being grilled. Tables and chairs are set up, and the stage is decorated in Cameroon's national colors. On this Monday afternoon, everything is ready for the perfect tournament day. The hosts of the Africa Cup have reached the round of 16 as group winners. There, the surprise team of the Comoros awaits.
Anyone with a ticket will be making their way to the Olembe Stadium on this January 24. For the first time, the modern, 60,000-seat arena will be nearly full. Due to the pandemic, 48,000 are admitted. The stadium, officially named Stade Paul Biya after the 89-year-old autocratic president, cost 249 million euros. It is set to become Cameroon's flagship stadium. At the 8 p.m. kickoff, the atmosphere is boisterous and the stands are well filled. In goal for the Comoros is the left defender, as the three goalkeepers are corona positive or injured. After an early red card for guest captain Jimmy Abdou, the wave goes through the oval. Cameroon scores in the 29th minute to take the lead and end up winning 2-1. Everything is going according to plan.
Fans, players and journalists are unaware at this point that the biggest disaster in the history of the competition has occurred just before kickoff. Due to the large crowd at the south entrance, the gate has been locked. After the fans become more and more impatient and more and more people push forward from behind, it is opened again by gendarmes. Eight people are killed in the ensuing rush. 

Irresponsible organization

The day after the accident, the blame game begins. For Sports Minister Narcisse Kombi, it is clear that fans who tried to gain access late and without authorization are responsible. Kombi, chairman of the local organizing committee, announced tighter security measures for the quarterfinal between Cameroon and Gambia to "stop uncivilized behavior by Cameroonians who want to force their way into the stadium without a ticket." The minister fails to provide answers to fundamental questions: why did access controls fail, why weren't the many fans diverted to other entrances, why were there so few security personnel on site?
"Now is not the time to point fingers at each other," says CAF President Patrice Motsepe - and then does just that at his press conference. "The local organizing committee is responsible for security, we at CAF only advise." Canceling the tournament is out of the question. Instead, Motsepe, the South African mining tycoon, raves about the power of soccer to bring people together across all skin colors. The tournament is not even interrupted. Until the causes of the deadly scrum are clarified, CAF is only banning matches at Olembe Stadium. Already in the evening, the round of 16 match between Morocco and Malawi will take place at the smaller Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde. There is a minute's silence for the victims, and the advertising boards read "Condolences to the families of the deceased spectators." The show must go on.

Ignorant CAF

CAF's attempt to shift responsibility to the local organizers is dishonest. After all, how often have the hosts had to deal with crowds beyond 50,000? There were just 25,000 fans in the stadium for the last World Cup qualifying match and 10,000 for the match before that, both games being played in Douala. Jonathan Wilson, one of the few European journalists on the ground, writes in the Guardian, "It's CAF that organizes tournaments every two years and has the experience. It can't pretend the carnage is none of its business and shake off responsibility." But CAF has acted cynically in the past. Two days before the 2010 Africa Cup in Angola, Togo's team bus was attacked in the exclave of Cabinda. Three people died in the hail of bullets, including the co-coach. The traumatized team then declared its withdrawal from the Africa Cup, but CAF showed little understanding and initially banned Togo from the next two tournaments.

CAF, which is based in Cairo, also demonstrates ignorance in dealing with the civil war in western Cameroon. The two English-speaking regions on the border with Nigeria are home to about 20 percent of the population. The French-dominated central state is fighting the Anglophone independence movement, which advocates an independent state of Ambazonia, with a heavy hand. "We are oppressed by the Francophones, officially we are a bilingual country, but everything is in French," says Francis Amungwa, as the Burkina Faso vs. Tunisia game plays on TV in a bar in Douala. He is from the English-speaking part of Cameroon and, like 700,000 others, has been displaced from his home. According to Human Rights Watch, 4,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict so far.
Regardless of the civil war, Limbe-Buea in the southwest has been designated as one of the tournament's venues. The teams in Group F - Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania and Gambia - trained in Buea and played in the coastal town of Limbe. In the run-up to the tournament, the Amba Boys, as the armed fighters are known, warned against playing matches there. Journalists were assured by CAF that they had nothing to fear. But on the day of the first group match between Mali and Tunisia, the separatists attacked government troops in Buea. A police officer was killed by an explosive device. A gun battle ensued, killing a cab driver and his passenger, according to Radio France International. The Malian team, which was training just a kilometer away at Molyko Stadium, canceled practice. However, the match in neighboring Limbe took place as planned. 

Balls and books

Despite the tragic events, this year's Africa Cup was a tournament eagerly awaited by many fans on the continent - and one that had its bright spots: for example, Zimbabwe's group match against Guinea saw an all-female referee team, led by Salima Mukansanga, on the pitch for the first time in the tournament's history. In Garoua in northern Cameroon, the girls of the soccer team from the Minawao refugee camp experienced their personal tournament highlight. As children, they fled from the Islamist terrorist militia Boko Haram from Nigeria to Cameroon, now they were allowed to support Nigeria in the match against Sudan in the stadium - and used the media attention in their own cause. Lucy Petros, 18, told AFP, "My dream is to become a doctor. We don't just need footballs here in the camp, we want books."
In terms of sport, the Africa Cup initially offered slim fare in the group stage: 15 of the 36 matches ended 1-0 - the tournament mode, in which the best third-placed teams in the group also advance, encourages low-risk play. Nevertheless, there were some highlights. Sierra Leone had not qualified since 1996. The ragtag team played smartly and held Algeria to a draw. In a 2-2 draw with the stars of the Ivory Coast, the West Africans shone with an explosive finish from Musa Kamara, who plays for Bo Rangers in the local league, and a 93rd-minute equalizer from Alhaji Kamara. Malawi, who have never reached the round of 16 before, took the lead against shocked Moroccans after seven minutes when Gabadinho Mhango outpaced PSG defender Achraf Hakimi and scored into the cross-corner from just over 40 yards. Tournament debutants The Gambia, 150th in the FIFA World Ranking, also impressed. That was also thanks to goalkeeper Baboucar Gaye of German fourth-division club FC Rot-Weiß Koblenz.

The most important title

The final between Egypt and Senegal featured some big names: With Mohamed Salah on one side and Kalidou Koulibaly and Sadio Mane on the other, the stars of the tournament faced each other. In 120 minutes, no goal was scored and Senegal missed chance after chance, partly because Egypt's goalkeeper Gabaski saved a penalty kick by Mane in the fourth minute. In the penalty shootout, the Egyptians suddenly seemed to switch to the favorite role, after all, it is their parade discipline. Moreover, the Senegalese had lost every final so far, in 2019 they failed to beat Algeria, and in 2002 the current team manager Aliou Cisse missed the decisive penalty against Cameroon. In 2022, however, a different story was written: Senegal won the Africa Cup for the first time. Tournament winner Cisse is representative of the triumphant success of African coaches. He was one of 15 team captains to come from the country they coach. "This is the most important trophy of my career," said Mane, who has won the Champions League and Premier League with Liverpool. The final also formed a conciliatory ending thanks to images of the team's exuberant cheering in Cameroon and its fans in Senegal.

Der 33. Afrika-Cup wurde gegen den Widerstand der europäischen Klubs durchgeführt, seine Zukunft steht aufgrund der Diskussion um häufigere Weltmeisterschaften in den Sternen. Vielleicht bleibt für das Turnier im überfüllten Spielplan der FIFA keine Zeit mehr, vielleicht gewinnt der Afrika-Cup aber gerade durch seine Infragestellung auch an Bedeutung. Angesichts der politischen Krisen und der wirtschaftlichen Unsicherheiten auf dem Kontinent scheint das Turnier wichtiger denn je zu sein.