Shame On Equatorial Guinea

Let me make it clear that I do not believe what happened at the Afcon 2015 semifinal match between hosts Equatorial Guinea and Ghana has shamed African Football.
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It has not. It has only shamed Equatorial Guinea, their football fans, their authorities, the local organising committee at the venue and especially their footballers who were on the pitch during this match.
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I am particularly disappointed and even a tad angry at the Equatorial Guinea players and I hold them responsible for what eventually happened from the fans.
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Step forward in the hall of shame Iban Edu and the right sided player Kike. These two players’ conducts during the match and especially in the first half were disgraceful and helped to fuel a feeling of injustice and even entitlement to victory that the fans thought was theirs.
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Both of them went to ground at the slightest contact – nothing new there in modern football some will say – but they never left it there, they were always waving imaginary cards and demanding the referee to book the offending Ghanaian player. Appalling conduct. This didn’t happen once or twice but way too many times.
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Then the coaching crew joined. Each time Iban Edu or any other home player was rolling on the ground the coach and his assistants would jump to their feet and wave imaginary cards as if the player had been assaulted with a rifle. Disgusting.
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As the match wore on I feared this was going to happen and I felt the referee was not strong enough and should have booked Kike IMMEDIATELY after he demanded a yellow card for Mubarak Wakasu’s absolutely normal shoulder barge early in the first half. His booking of the Ghanaian I believe emboldened the home side to keep at it all half.
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Moving further back, the seeds were probably sown in the quarterfinal when Equatorial Guinea were awarded a last-minute penalty to equalise against Tunisia. It was an absolutely diabolical decision that shamed the tournament.
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It might have given the players and their fans a sense of entitlement — arising from having bailed out CAF at the last minute to host the tournament — that they can get decisions like that.
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Close inspection of that match will show that the hosts’ behaviour on the pitch deteriorated in extra time and they started chasing the referee for decisions. Something they carried into the semifinal.
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I have followed the Afcon closely since 1984 and one thing that has become seemingly common has been the host countries’ thinking/believing they host to win.
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Notable exceptions have been Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Burkina Faso and even Mali. Of the countries in North Africa only Morocco have hosted without providing an intimidating atmosphere for visiting teams. That is probably why many did not have too much sympathy for Tunisia last weekend. It does not make it right though and it has to stop.
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CAF have to start showing decisiveness and hand out strong actions to offending nations and must make a firm example of Equatorial Guinea this time. They have hit them with a serious ban and while handing out the ban they must tell other hosts nations that hosting does not mean winning the tournament.
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CAF seem way too lenient on these matters. During the qualifiers Congo behaved equally disgracefully after losing 2-0 at home to Nigeria and I thought they would have been thrown out of the competition. Their behaviour was even worse when put alongside the fact that they had won in Nigeria and NOTHING happened to their players.
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It does not matter that Equatorial Guinea bailed CAF out in hosting following Morocco’s refusal to host, we can’t allow such hooliganism to stand.
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Their actions will not make us lose focus on a tantalising final in store for us as Ivory Coast take on Ghana at the weekend. These have been the best two teams at the tournament and I have been impressed as they improved with each game.
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The hope is that they will not re-enact the turgid final of 1992 when an ultra defensive Ivory Coast side took on an Abedi Pele-less Ghana. This time all the big guns will be available.
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I will do a proper preview on the morning of the game. Can’t wait really.