Nations Cup as entertaining and chaotic as ever

(14 February 2000)

Cameroon's dramatic win over heavily fancied Nigeria  in the African Nations Cup final in Lagos on Sunday characterised a tournament that provided much entertainment and quality football but again raised vexing questions about officiating and organisation.

Sunday's final saw Cameroon return to the winners podium after more than a decade without success in the bi-annual African championship, edging Nigeria 4-3 on penalties after the final ended 2-2 after extra time.

It was a deserved victory for the central African country but remained clouded in controversy after a refereeing error ruled out a vital penalty for Nigeria in the post-match shootout.

A kick from Victor Ikpeba, the Nigerian substitute, hit the underside of the crossbar, crossed the goalline and then bounced back out of the goal and was not awarded.

Television replays afterwards clearly showed the penalty should have stood and that both the Tunisian linesman and referee erred badly at a vitally dramatic juncture in the penalty shootout.

The error took much of the gloss off the spectacle of the final, where Cameroon took an early 2-0 lead only for Nigeria to claw their way back into contention.

And so it was for much of the three-week tournament, co- hosted by Ghana and Nigeria in the first experiment of its kind in world football.

The general chaos of organisation in Nigeria, where security at the imposing Surelere stadium was virtually non-existent and rioting by supporters common place after every game, negated almost all the progress shown by African football on the field.

The image of soldiers firing teargas at bands of youths lurking outside the stadium contrasted sadly with the skills of the likes of Patrick Mboma, Austin Okocha and African soccer's exciting new finds Laurent Mayer of Cameroon and Nigerian teenager Julius Aghahowa.

Nigeria's football association were fined on two separate occasions for pitch invasion and general mayhem at their national stadium during the tournament.

While Ghana proved a gentle venue, the lack of crowd support also contrived to deprive the tournament of much of its shine.

Both Nigeria and Ghana stepped in as hosts of the Nations Cup a year ago when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) took the tournament away from Zimbabwe.

CAF declared the principle of co-hosting a success with secretary-general Mustapha Fahmy saying the ``door was now open'' for bids from pairs of African countries who would ordinarily not have the resources to host the tournament on their own.

But officials complained bitterly at the lack of co- ordination between the two west African countries.

The football proved of an ever-improving standard and with more international focus than ever before. For the first time, more than half the players competing came from clubs in Europe, among them some of the most popular teams in the world.

Nigeria were expected to dominate and provided their fanatical fans in Lagos with memorable wins over other contenders like Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia.

But Cameroon were quick to register their intention by going close to beating Ghana in the tournament's opening game and easily reaching the final.

Defending champions Egypt were the only side to record a 100 percent record in the first round group matches but went out disappointingly in the quarter-finals to Tunisia, undone by spoiling tactics and their own inability to change their approach.

Failure at the finals cost the coaches of Algeria, Morocco and South Africa their jobs while Togo's eccentric German coach Gottlieb Goller walked out on his team, one match into the tournament, after a row with federation officials.