Last night was my first World Cup experience as a fan. An Ivory Coast scarf wrapped round my neck, I watched Les Elephants lose 3-1 to Brazil at Soccer City. Some thoughts… South Africans may have bought tickets in large numbers, but are they football fans? Many of those I sat with behind the goal [...]
Depressing interview by Jonathan Wilson with Ivory Coast’s former coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, in today’s Guardian. Depressing because Halilhodzic is right: “…African football suffers from chronic organisational problems. There, politicians are interfering in absolutely everything, especially football. The reasons are obvious, football is very popular, particularly at national level, and some marginal political characters are using [...]
Sven Goran Eriksson’s reign as coach of Ivory Coast has not got off to a good start. The BBC’s John James found little enthusiasm for Sven in Abidjan, with many supporters unsure who he is. “I can’t say I know too much about him”, said one fan Jean-Paul, while another, Guy Borgon could only say [...]
Africa’s World Cup teams are in trouble. Nigeria and Ivory Coast both sacked their coaches after disappointing performances in the Africa Cup of Nations. Cameroon didn’t sack Paul Le Guen but the team’s tepid performance in Angola hardly augured well for South Africa. Algeria reached the semi-finals but their complete loss of discipline in their [...]
The way the African Football Confederation (CAF) dealt with the attack on the Togolese squad was nothing short of shameful. CAF officials were quick to lay the blame on Togo for driving rather than flying, did little to support the team following the attack, and once Togo had left released a technocratic and heartless statement [...]
The night before Ivory Coast left their pre-Africa Cup of Nations training camp in Tanzania, the team’s Bosnian coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, was sat in the lobby of Dar es Salaam’s five-star Kempinski hotel, staring into the middle distance. Three hours earlier Didier Drogba had complained of a slight strain in his groin and had been [...]
Patagonia Theme designed by Wp Themes Planet and proudly powered by WordPress
