Halfway through the tournament, with the elimination of the top teams such as Algeria and Nigeria, the African Cup of Nations has gradually entered a climax, and the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, has not yet finished, and the results seem to have been revealed, which is definitely not the best African Cup of Nations, and may become the worst African Cup.
At the Olembe District Paulbia Stadium, which is preparing for this Africa Cup of Nations, there was a stampede during the match between Cameroon and the Comoros, and as of press time, 8 people have been killed and more than 40 have been injured, more than 20 of whom are seriously injured.
Just the day before the stampede, a fire at the Liv Bar in the supposedly safest bastos district of the capital Yaoundé claimed to have claimed the lives of countless Cameroonians, and while the official version was 12 dead and more than 20 injured, the actual death toll was between 60 and 80 and rising, according to friends at Cameroon's State Security Service.
▲ Cameroon's largest stadium, The Paul Biya Stadium.
This should have been a joyful contest, a grand gathering that was finally held through the efforts of all parties under the epidemic, and finally seemed to be cursed. As Cameroon's new FA President Eto'o said: "If people are going to pay the greatest price in their lives, to pay their lives, then it is necessary for us to do any work to compensate for it." ”
From the preparation of the game to the start of the whole process, the Kazakh side has been emphasizing the necessity of "respect", in the eyes of Africans, the respect they get is never enough, just like the small town of small places into the big city to do the problem of youth, after solving the problem of food and clothing, the first thing that comes to mind is often to get ahead and show their excellence at a higher level.
The theme of sports is inseparable from the spirit of equality, respect and competition. In order to ensure the work of the event, the people of Cameroon, the host city, had to endure water and power outages, lack of network signals, and martial law from time to time. In order to do a nucleic acid test within 48 hours, the fans who watched the ball had to queue up early, arrive at the stadium two or three hours in advance, endure the sweltering heat of January in the southern hemisphere, and dare not speak out in the shouts of the gendarmes. As a guest from a foreign country, enjoying supranational treatment, I can't help but lament the hardships of life for the African people, for whom there is no equality, no respect and no spirit of competition.
More than a hundred years back in time, the Scene of the Qing Kingdom still "measuring the material resources of China and forging a happy heart with the country" is reproduced today in this not-so-poor Central African bellwether country. Even in Africa, it is not a decent thing to see hordes of beggars in the heart of the capital, and just a week before the race, beggars in Cameroon's main city magically disappeared. On the road from Yaoundé Nemaren Airport to the city, the temporary and dangerous houses of the poor were required to be uniformly painted off-white. The tin houses near the Paulbia Stadium in Olembe were also demolished overnight. "Zhumen wine smells of meat, the road has frozen bones", the airport executives of Liv Bar celebrated his birthday would not have thought that the special party for more than 300 relatives and friends would become the last happy time of his life.
The stampede at the Paulbia Stadium was a precursor, and just a week ago, the stadium security complained to the media that the previously agreed payment of 8,000 CFA francs a day would be deducted in half. Students who were pulled from the school to watch the ball on the spot did not receive a reward of 3,000 CFA francs a day. Football is the life of Cameroonians, the spiritual opium of the poor, but in the face of high ticket prices, in the case of a minister who bought 38,000 tickets alone, let them pay more than twice the price of the ticket, is an unaffordable expense, for the people at the bottom of the society, eating under the epidemic has become a problem, where there is spare money to watch the ball.
This was the last major event of his life for the elderly President Paul Biya, an old man who had been in power for nearly 40 years, who had tried to present the image of a strong leader to the world at the opening ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations, but almost fell on the news on the rostrum.
▲ Cameroon President Paul Biya.
Côte d'Ivoire complained to the Non-FA that Japoma's turf did not meet the requirements of the game, and immediately became an enemy in the eyes of all Cameroonians, in the round of 16 against Egypt, Ivorian players will get a lot of boos and insults from Cameroonian fans as soon as they take the ball, and the exit of Côte d'Ivoire makes cameroonians happy, in their eyes, because Côte d'Ivoire first "disrespected" Cameroon.
After the Olembe Paulbia Stadium stampede, the NFA suspended the use of the Paulbia Stadium, and Cameroon's quarter-final against the Gambia had nowhere to play. The capital, Yaoundé, has two venues, the other being the Amadu Ashijo Stadium, where Paul Biya cannot stand the Cameroon national team playing in a stadium named after the former president, especially when the stadium named after PaulBia cost more than 2.2 billion yuan and was completed 11 years later.
As president of the Cameroon Football Federation and vice-chairman of the African Cup of Nations Organizing Committee, Eto'o was immediately put on fire, and if the Paubia Stadium could not be used, then the most preferred option was the Japoma Stadium in Douala, and because the turf was not up to standard, the Non-FA had asked that the Jama Stadium should no longer be used. In addition to this, every cameroon knows that Douala is the forbidden land of President Paul Biya. The city at the heart of Central Africa's economy was blacklisted by Maurice Kamto, a political enemy who supported Paul Biya in the 2018 election, and has never set foot on it.
▲ The newly appointed president of the Cameroon Football Association, Eto'o.
The lesser of two evils, although the NFA is still in a tit-for-tat confrontation with the organizing committee on the issue of the Japoma Stadium, Eto'o insisted that Cameroon's match against the Gambia be played at the Japoma Stadium, which is also the last African Cup of Nations match in the economic capital Douala. In his opinion, since the home team Cameroon can play in Japoma, why can't the other teams?
Eto'o also has his own mind, Douala is his birthplace, and this Cameroon Football Association election is also with the support of The Douala people to put him in power. At present, the top level of praise and criticism of Eto'o, in 2019, the African Cup of Nations Eto'o was introduced to the son of Paul Biya by the former president of the Football Association, and after receiving more than 10 million yuan in public relations fees, Eto'o still failed to keep the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon, and has since formed a disagreement with the prince. The attorney general even expressed his disdain for Eto'o in private: "Eto'o? Who is it? Even if it is Roger Mira and Mboma, what is it in this country? ”
During the reign of Amado Ashijo, Cameroon's per capita GDP far exceeded that of China, and it is difficult to imagine that Cameroon was still a country with universal health insurance coverage and free education, and the rapid development of the economy made Cameroon football go global. From Mbappelpe (the brother of French star Mbappe's grandfather) to Roger Mira, Nkono (Espanyol goalkeeper coach) to Mboma, all grew up in a period of better economic development, and now Cameroon's stars have been under great pressure to survive since childhood. Umtiti, who lives in the slums of Yaoundé and worked in a supermarket in Chinese as a young man, had to entrust his daughter to relatives and friends in anonymity in order to play football in Europe. It is not difficult to understand the cameroonians' desire for "respect" in the face of their current situation when they recall their glory and pride.
Frankly speaking, Cameroon's economy is a dwarf general in Central Africa, much better than Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and far behind neighboring Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. Gabon Bango family, Chad Debi family, Equatorial Guinea Obion family, the prince has been strongly supported by Cameroon when he succeeded, and now that Paul Biya has reached the final term of office, whether he can let the prince succeed smoothly is his top priority, this time the African Cup of Nations invited old friends to gather, but also his most important circle gathering a hundred years ago, he is most eager for "respect".
Things often go beyond human settings, and the people who are respected at the African Cup of Nations are the unknown people in world football, such as the Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Cape Verde and Malawi.
Despite the hosts' deliberate intentions to ensure that Cameroon reach the final, there are always teams that will fight for their fairness and respect. The Comoros, without a goalkeeper, sent a 1-metre-72 defender to replace it, leaving on their feet against the hosts with just one less man in the opening 10 minutes. Malawi against the championship-winning favourite Morocco dared to fight, and the ultra-long-range world wave was shocking. They have given the best highlight performances for those of us mortals who have struggled unyieldingly under the epidemic, and they will surely receive empathetic flowers and applause.
▲ Comoros FIFA ranked 132nd, the African Cup of 16, because the 3 goalkeepers could not play because of the new crown or injury, comoros can only use their own left-back Alhad hull to play the starting goalkeeper, which is also the first time in the continental competition that there is a guest goalkeeper start.
In addition to the Cameroonian media, this Year's African Cup of Nations has been carried out to this day, and what has been harvested is the one-sided accusations of foreign media, and the voices of criticism are endless: "the worst African Cup of Nations ever", "the game full of injustice and partiality", "the vicious stampede is the inevitable result". As fans, all we want is pure football, two hours of relaxing time with friends over a beer at the bar. As long as the organizers can give this, it is the best "respect" for football.
Fortunately, I was born in New China, a country that has won the respect of the world through two or three generations of hard work, a country that can host the Winter Olympics under the epidemic, and a country where ordinary people can go to bars to watch football with three or five friends at night. When we lament that the Chinese national team has once again lost the opportunity to participate in the World Cup, we may as well ask ourselves, how did we win the World Cup? Those Chinese who have dedicated their lives to their jobs under the epidemic have long won us enough respect.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein represent only the views of the author himself and do not represent Lazy Bear Sports.