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| This happens when your federation is handicapped |
Morocco however miraculously hosted the FIFA club world cup a month before the Africa Cup Of Nations. No one knows how their doctors and medical practitioners calculated the risk involved in organising the prestigious Africa Cup Of Nations and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Fine or no fine, Morocco made up its mind not to save the pride of African football in which they form part of the organization.
Fortunately, the face of the AFCON was redeemed right at the very end when the oil rich nation of Equatorial Guinea came to picture. Though they as a team weren't prepared to even participate. They were disqualified at the preliminary stages of the qualifiers due to fielding an unqualified Cameroonian national in their qualifying match against Mauritania.
They legitimately had their second chance when the initial host Morocco pulled out of the competition,excusing it with the outbreak of Ebola.
Equatorial Guinea swiftly put everything in place with almost a month and some weeks for the biggest football competition in the world behind fifa world cup and UEFA European championship respectively.
Although countries complained about their training pitches, hotels, buses, etc. I don't really think anyone can blame them(Equatorial Guinea) for such misfortunes. Other lucky countries had If not perfect hotels and buses,closer to perfect ones.
Everything was organised I have to say to perfection.
Equatorial Guinea was the tournaments big surprise when they reached the semis by beating their neighbours Gabon in a crucial match. A win would qualified either side. After the 90 minutes, Equatorial Guinea won by 2 goals to nothing.
A shocker performance came when they matched the continents 2nd placed team all the way to extra time after coming from a goal down. Javier Balboa's double ensured Equatorial Guinea's has booked a place face Ghana in the semi final.
The whole world saw what happened on the Thursday 5th of February 2015 on the soil of the tiny oil rich nation of Equatorial Guinea.
Ghana was mercilessly beating Equatorial Guinea,leading them by 3 goals to nill.
On the 83rd minute of the game,the Ever faithful and die hard fans of the blackstars of Ghana were seen at the corner line area,close to the Equatorial Guinea's post because the host nation's fans were in agony and disheartened and out of that pain decided to cause violence and chaos. Some of the Equatorial Guinea fans were seen throwing bottles and canned tins at the Ghanaians.
What made everyone watching at home wondering was what their military force was reacting to such a disgraceful act. Before the match started there were many military men seen all over the stadium. It took the intervention of an helicopter to partially keep the unrest caused by the host nation's fans cool.
The match had to be stopped for 35 minutes. This took the excitement out of the game and potentially prevented Ghana from making a record by scoring 4,5 or 6 goals in an AFCON match.
Equatorial Guinea made the whole of Africa proud and happy. Humbly accommodating all the people from the world at the risk of contacting Ebola to their country.
Thanks for bringing smiles to the faces of Africans and beyond. One love 💖
