/ When it comes to the African Cup of Nations, football fans certainly have special and exceptional memories that distinguish the competition in the African continent from its counterparts in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Although some of them were painful, these incidents made this competition unique with stories that sometimes had nothing to do with the field.
A look back at some of the exciting moments and stories with African football.
The curse of magic haunts Ivory Coast
Perhaps the most prominent story of magic and sorcery in the African Cup of Nations concerns the Ivory Coast national team, the host country of the 2024 edition, specifically when it won its first title in 1992 in Senegal.
At the time, the Ivorians had a distinguished team and were well prepared for the competition. However, the preparations did not include the players, as the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that the then Minister of Sports, René Deby, provided them with assistance in another way, which he described as “psychological preparation”. The minister went to the village of Akradio, located in the province from which he came, to meet with well-known magicians with the intention of helping the “Elephants” return with the cup from Dakar.
Indeed, the predictions of the Akradio magicians came true, and the team returned with the cup after an exciting final against Ghana, which witnessed the longest penalty shootout in the history of international competitions, in which the famous Ivorian goalkeeper, Alain Gouameni, excelled.
But the story of magic with the “Elephants” did not stop there. After Deby failed to fulfill his financial obligations to the magicians, they became furious and said at the time that a curse would befall the Ivory Coast team and that it would not win the continental cup for twenty years.
Indeed, Ivory Coast was plagued by bad luck in the African continent and lost the title in strange ways on some occasions, especially in the first decade of the third millennium with the generation of Didier Drogba and Arouna Kone, the brothers Yaya and Kolo Toure, goalkeeper Tizi and Didier Zokora. Between 2006 and 2012, the “Elephants” lost two finals on penalties against Egypt and then Zambia.
More than two decades after the continental coronation, Frenchman Herve Renard was appointed coach of the team, and French sports journalist Christophe Gleize said that Renard told him that his first decision was to meet these magicians to appease them. This appeasement “maybe” was the reason for the “Elephants” returning with the cup in the 2015 edition in Equatorial Guinea.
Cameroonian legend N’Kono arrested
The magic story we are telling this time happened on the pitch and was documented with photos. Before the semi-final of the 2002 edition between the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and the host Mali, the famous Cameroon goalkeeping coach Thomas N’Kono noticed a Malian policeman spraying the pitch with a strange substance before the warm-up period. N’Kono quickly went to him to dissuade him from doing what he did, which ended in a clash with him before the police resorted to arresting him in handcuffs.
This altercation almost caused the match to be called off, and after “reconciliation” negotiations led by the continental football federation, N’Kono was released and the match was played, but the magic was of no avail as Cameron Eto’o, Mboma and Rigobert Song won 3-0.
Morocco abandons the tournament
Some African Cup tournaments witnessed the withdrawal of teams for various reasons, including politics, security, sports, and health.
In the third-place match of the 1978 edition in Ghana, Tunisia took the lead against Nigeria with a goal by their late striker Mohamed Ali Akid before the Nigerians equalised in the first half. However, the Tunisians withdrew from the match due to what they considered “unfair” refereeing decisions, and the Confederation of African Football decided to award third place to Nigeria and deprive Tunisia, with a golden generation of Tamim Al-Hazami, Tariq Dhiab, Najib Ghomaid, Atouqa, Ali Al-Kaabi and others, from participating in the 1980 edition.
The second famous withdrawal was with Nigeria in 1996. After being crowned with a golden generation including Amokachi and Amunike in Tunisia 1994, Nigeria decided to withdraw from the next edition, which was organized by South Africa for the first time after its return to the continental arena following the end of the apartheid era.
The withdrawal was due to a political dispute between Nigerian President Sani Abacha and South African leader Nelson Mandela. The Confederation of African Football decided to ban them from participating in the 1998 edition as well, which deprived viewers of watching a wonderful generation that included Nwankwo Kanu, Okocha, Babangida, Taribo West and Victor Ikpeba. This “political” withdrawal paved the way for Bafana Bafana to win the title at the expense of Tunisia.
The third most famous withdrawal was that of the Togolese team, this time for security reasons. In the Angola 2010 edition, the Togolese delegation chose to travel by land by bus to the Cabinda region where the first round matches would be played. However, the delegation was attacked on the Angolan-Congolese border, claimed by the separatists of the “Organization for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda”, while it was on its way to participate in the 27th African Cup of Nations.
The attack killed a press attaché and an assistant coach, and injured nine others, including two players. The Togolese government ordered its players not to participate in the continental finals and to return to Lomé, and for this purpose sent a special plane that returned the team to the capital at night.
In addition to the withdrawal of teams, the African Cup of Nations has repeatedly witnessed countries abandoning the organization or withdrawing from it, most of which were due to the lack of readiness of their infrastructure or for security reasons, such as the 2012 Libya edition. However, the most famous of these remains the withdrawal of the organization of the 2015 edition from Morocco and granting it to Equatorial Guinea after the Kingdom requested at the time to postpone the tournament due to the spread of the Ebola virus in a number of countries on the continent.
However, the Confederation of African Football categorically rejected this proposal, withdrew the organization from the Kingdom and decided to deprive it of participating in the 2017 and 2019 editions before this was reversed.
Zambia plane crash tragedy
The date of April 27, 1993 remains stuck in the history of painful events in African football, when the plane carrying the Zambian national team crashed while heading to Dakar to face Senegal in the World Cup qualifiers. The entire team delegation and the plane crew perished.
Of that great generation, the most prominent “survivor” was Dutch PSV Eindhoven professional Kalusha Bwalya, who – by a happy coincidence – travelled on a private plane to Dakar. From the womb of this tragedy, a new historic generation for Zambia was born, led by Bwalya, and reached a historic final in 1994, which they lost to the Nigerian “Eagles”.
Zambian referee escapes death
The latest Africa Cup of Nations anecdote occurred in the 2022 Cameroon edition, specifically in the first-round match between Mali and Tunisia, which ended prematurely. When the Malians were leading by a goal in the 84th minute, Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe announced the end of the match, to the astonishment of Tunisia’s coach at the time, Mondher Kebaier, which prompted the referee to speak to his assistants to decide to resume play.
Only four minutes later, Sikazwe again announced the end of the match seconds before the end of the regular time and without counting any additional time, amidst the anger of the Tunisian coach and his assistants. But this time, Sikazwe was determined to end the match, and he appeared exhausted at the time. He told the local press after the match that he was on the verge of death and that “God ordered him to end the match to save his life.”
Apart from this famous incident, coaches, players and journalists have often talked about disastrous refereeing errors that have changed the course of continental titles in Africa over the decades. But the most famous of all remains the Nigeria-Cameroon final in 2000, when the match ended in a 2-2 draw, and the penalty shootout was resorted to.
In a scene that was a direct cause of deciding the title in favor of Samuel Eto’o’s teammates, Tunisian referee Mourad Al-Daami and his assistant Mourad Al-Ajanqi did not award a penalty kick to Nigeria after the ball hit the crossbar and crossed the goal line, thus depriving Nigeria of the title on its home ground and in front of its fans.
Using a Motobike as a Stretcher
One of the funny moments that has stuck in the minds of African football followers is the use of a “Motobecan” motorcycle in the 1998 Burkina Faso edition in the process of transporting injured players to receive treatment off the field.
At that time, the use of this type of bicycle was the first means of transportation used by the people of Burkina Faso in their daily lives, and the “motorcycle culture” in the country was immortalized through football.
Military punishment.. for withdrawal
When the Ivory Coast players were eliminated in the first round of the Ghana-Cameroon tournament in 2000, it never occurred to them that they would not be landing at Abidjan airport but at a military base.
The group remained there for three days and was treated like new recruits performing military service and was said to have been given lessons in patriotism. After the news spread in the international press, they were released, with the authorities justifying their decision to transfer them there by fearing public anger over their disappointing performance.