Paddy Agnew WorldsceneAfrican football is often controversial, but rarely dull. Just look at Nigeria and how they fared in the first round of the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia last week.
Having lost their opening game to Morocco, the Nigerians sent home three players for indiscipline before going on to beat South Africa 4-0, scoring the 1,000th goal in the tournament's history.
After that opening defeat by Morocco, Celestine Babayaro of Chelsea, Yakubu Ayegbeni of Portsmouth and Victor Agali of German club Schalke 04, were sent home.
The three players had absconded from the team hotel in Monastir after "lights out", destined for a night out on the town. Nigerian Football Association secretary Taiwo Obunjobi said: "They broke the rules. They were supposed to be in bed last night, like the other team players, but they were not. They returned to the team hotel only early this morning.
"We have informed the team through the captain Jay Jay Okocha and have received the approval of the sports minister and it was decided that discipline must be maintained and the players involved must leave the camp immediately."
Undaunted by the setbacks, Nigeria pulled off arguably the most significant win of the tournament so far when beating South Africa 4-0 in Monastir last Saturday. With a final first round game against little Benin to come tomorrow, Nigeria should pick up another win and their expected place in the second round. South Africa, on the other hand, seem destined for elimination barring an unlikely high-scoring win over Morocco.
Whilst Nigeria have had their problems in this first week, so have two of the other favourites, Cameroon and Senegal, the two sides who fought out the 2002 final in Mali, eventually won on penalties by Cameroon.
After a disappointing 1-1 draw with Algeria in their opening game, Cameroon beat Zimbabwe 5-3 in arguably the most entertaining match so far. Patrick Mboma, the man foisted on German coach Winifred Schaefer by the Cameroon sports authorities, scored a hat-trick.
When the Cameroon team got back to their hotel room in Sousse, however, a nasty surprise was in store when four players, Mohammed Idrissou, Geremi, Idriss Kameni and Daniel Kome, reported the safes in their rooms had been cleaned out, with some $70,000 worth of goods and money stolen.
Given none of the safes bore the marks of a forced entry, Tunisian police immediately suspected an "inside" job.
Acting on a tip-off from a worker at a nearby hotel, police arrested an unnamed Algerian man who was staying at the same hotel as the "Indomitable Lions".
Back on the pitch this afternoon, however, Cameroon meet Egypt in Monastir in a game in which a draw will be good enough to see them into the second round, almost certainly along with Algeria who should prove far too strong for Zimbabwe, also this afternoon.
As for Senegal, the surprise packet of the 2002 World Cup, they scrambled into a quarter-final clash next Saturday with host nation Tunisia when being held yesterday to a 1-1 draw by surprise group winners Mali, who now face Guinea in an unlikely quarter-final pairing.
Guinea edged out "peace team" Rwanda, the side which features Hutus and Tutsis playing alongside each other, without apparent problems in spite of the memories of the mass genocide which saw one million people slaughtered in inter-tribal rivalry 10 years ago.
Their 1-0 win against the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday took them to within five minutes of the quarter-finals, only to see their hopes dashed by a late Guinea equaliser against Tunisia (scored by former Liverpool striker Titi Camarra).
Rwanda midfielder Jimmy Mulisa said afterwards: "We didn't come here expecting to reach the quarter-finals, but we nearly made it . . . I'm happy for all the Rwandese. We are going to party tonight."
aleagnew@tin.it
