The new coronavirus has garbled the sports agenda on the Dark Continent, but African athletes have warmed hearts with high-flying performances.
The Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) was scheduled to start in exactly three days. Alas! Cameroon is going to wait another year to welcome the African football elite because of the Covid-19 pandemic which has spread all over the world.
The African Championship of Nations (Chan), originally scheduled from April 4 to 25, 2020, has met the same fate. Finally, the 6th edition of this competition reserved for footballers playing on the continent will be held from January 16 to February 7, 2021 in Cameroon.
In mid-March of the previous year, almost all national soccer championships were interrupted. In some cases, the game was able to resume as in Morocco. On the other hand, leagues such as the one in Senegal simply abdicated in the face of growing risk.
The pandemic forced the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to reschedule the third and fourth days of qualifying for the next CAN. The umbrella body also cancelled the Women’s African Cup of Nations.
The same goes for the CAF Awards ceremony during which the best players in African football over the calendar year are rewarded. However, 2020 had started under good auspices with the designation, at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids, of Senegalese international Sadio Mané as the best African player in front of his Liverpool teammate, Mohamed Salah.
Regarding interclub tournaments, a new format (the Final Four) has saved the suspended CAF Cup. The cities of Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco were chosen to host the duels on a one-legged match instead of the usual two.
The Sports Renaissance of Berkane of Morocco bagged the trophy at the expense of Pyramids FC (Egypt). The only goal of the Burkinabe central defender, Issoufou Dayo, made the cut for the Moroccans.
As for the African Champions League, Al Ahly beat its eternal rival Cairo Zamalek 2-1 in the final. A 9th title for the best African club of the last century.
Sign of the ever growing interest of the West for our talents, Victor Oshimen joined Naples for 81.3 million Euros. The Nigerian is now the most expensive African player.
Free fall
At the administrative front, Ahmad Ahmad was ousted from his seat as president of the CAF. An investigation conducted by the FIFA Ethics Committee got the better of the Malagasy who subsequently appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The judicial setbacks of Issa Hayatou’s successor open, for the time being, a boulevard to Augustin Senghor (Senegal), Jacques Anouma (Cote d’Ivoire), Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania) and Patrice Motsepe (South Africa) who run for the presidency of CAF.
As regard to basketball, the twelve best clubs on the continent were to compete in the highly anticipated African Basketball League. Even with the shortened formula, this competition did not take place in 2020. In the first half of this year, organizers hope to hold this mini-tournament in Kigali, Rwanda.
In athletics, Hugues-Fabrice Zango set a new African record in triple jump. Indeed, the Burkinabè made a jump of 17.77 meters at the indoor meeting in Paris. On that day, the bronze medallist at the World Championships in Doha edged out France’s Melvin Raffin (16.91 metres).
Joshua Cheptegei did better by becoming the new world record holder in the 10,000 metres. The Ugandan covered the distance in 26 minutes and 11 seconds. As a result, he wiped the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele off the shelves.
For his part, the Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie (24 years old) beat, with a time of 57 minutes and 32 seconds, the world record for the men’s half-marathon hitherto held by Geoffrey Kamworor.
Caster Semenya was less pleased when she lost her appeal to the Swiss Federal Court against the restriction of testosterone levels in female runners. The South African woman cannot digest the new World Athletics (ex-IAAF) rule on differences in sexual development.
At the head of this international body for about ten years, Lamine Diack (87 years old) was sentenced to 4 years in prison, two of which were suspended, for his involvement in a corruption network designed to conceal cases of doping of Russian athletes. The Senegalese had been under house arrest in the French capital since November 2015.
Fallen Stars
In Senegal, the first victim of the coronavirus was a celebrity: Pape Diouf, the former president of Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille. On November 29th, former Senegalese international Pape Bouba Diop bowed out at the age of 42. The former midfielder had offered his country a prestigious victory against France at the opening game of the 2002 World Cup.
Considered the greatest Gambian player of all time, Momodou Njie alias Biri Biri died at the age of 72. The captain of Cameroon at the World Cup 90, Stephen Tataw and his compatriot Ephrem M’Bom have also breathed their last as did the Moroccans Larbi Chebbak and Mohamed Abarhoun. Léon Mokuna Mutombo, the first DRC footballer to play in Europe, died at the age of 90.
ID/te/abj/APA