The sound of the bomb blast caused by the volcanic coach of the Algerian national football team stunned not only Africa, but also other countries.
“The wise man turns his tongue seven times in his mouth before speaking. Djamel Belmadi has made a break with this life conduct whose paternity is attributed to the prophet Solomon (Suleiman for Muslims) in the Bible.
Sunday, April 24, almost a month after his team’s loss against Cameroon (1-2), synonymous with non-participation in the World Cup 2022, the coach of the Fennecs is still in a rage. His designated target: Bakary Gassama, the referee of the fatal match. The Gambian whistle man, one of the aces on the black continent, carries on him all the sins of Israel.
“I did not like to see this referee sitting comfortably at the airport in Algiers and drinking coffee. I emptied my bag on him when I met him in Turkey. I didn’t like the fact that Algerians accept this kind of thing. When we go to these countries, we often don’t get this special treatment. He took away the hope of a whole people and we let him (get away with it). I’m not saying we should kill him, but he did us wrong. Never again will we let two or three people conspire against us. From now on, no referee will come to harm our country,” Belmadi ruminate in an hour-long interview to the YouTube channel of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF).
Quickly shared on Twitter in particular, this surreal sequence has triggered a torrent of criticism from famous football players and anonymous people stunned by the violence assumed by the vocabulary. “I have a feeling of disappointment with him (Belmadi). For three years, I found him to be a remarkable, passionate and hard-working manager. For the past three months, I have noticed that he has lost his footing a little,” Nabil Djellit, a journalist at France Football, coldly analyzed in the ‘Les Grandes Bouches’ talk show broadcast Monday night on Canal+.
Judged chauvinistic on Twitter, the Franco-Algerian did not however shy away from what he said, at his peril: “He (Belmadi) has the right to say that the refereeing is bad. On the other hand, I do not agree with the fact of attacking Bakary Gassama by name. It’s a slip. I understand his frustration, but the comments seem inappropriate,” said Djellit.
“It is extremely serious insofar as it makes a physical threat. Sport should not lead to these excesses,” said Mamadou Koume”, president of the Association of the Sports Press of Senegal (ANPS) from 1997 to 2003 and from 2008 to 2017.
In a statement dated April 25, the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) announced that it reserves “the right to bring the case before the Ethics Committee of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa)” in view of the “defamatory allegations instilled in an allusive manner and repeatedly made by the leaders of Algerian football.”
Qatar will host, from November 21 to December 18, the first World Cup in an Arab country. Djamel Belmadi already saw himself with his team in this emirate of the Persian Gulf that he knows inside out. Between 2010 and 2018, the native of Champigny-sur-Marne, France has sharpened his weapons as a coach after hanging up his boots. “Geopolitically, it is not a good deal for Algeria. That Tunisia and especially Morocco qualify and (that it does not succeed), it stains,” Koume said.
In the throat
At the end of the match against Cameroon, at the Mustapha Tchaker Stadium in Blida, Djamel Belmadi felt the earth crumble under his feet. The gestures and facial expressions show a state of post-traumatic stress.
The 2019 African champion is inconsolable because the ticket for Qatar 2022, “which will perhaps be the best World Cup in history,” he said in November 2021, has just slipped through his fingers when he thought he had secured it with the equalizer goal of Ahmed Touba in extra time.
Beyond the 40-year-old boss of the Fennecs, the scenario of the game is experienced as a national drama. Based on certain facts of the game, the Algerians cry conspiracy and file an appeal with Fifa to replay the match because of “scandalous refereeing, a slim hope to which millions of people still cling. The verdict of the governing body is expected this Thursday.
“I think there were no obvious and gross errors on the part of this referee. Sportingly, Algeria is in a bad situation. What we saw at the Africa Cup of Nations 2021 and which was confirmed in the double confrontation against Cameroon proves that it has dropped a tone,” said Mamadou Koume, also former Director General of the Senegalese News Agency (APS, public).
From October 2018 to January 2022, Algeria has played 35 games in a row without defeat in all competitions. This series, a record in Africa and the second best performance in the world, ended during the Can 2021 against Equatorial Guinea (0-1).
In the eyes of many informed observers of African football, Bakary Gassama is just the scapegoat of a coach who denies reality. “I’m worried because I have the impression that Belmadi is not yet digesting this disillusionment. I expected him to question himself,” said Nabil Djellit.
A little hindsight makes it possible to realize that Burkina Faso, on the final day of the second round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, exposed the shortcomings of a team that was missing, among others, the activity of Adlène Guedioura, a defensive midfielder who is hard on the man.
That day, the Fennecs had to settle for a point at home (2-2) to reach the next round. Two months later, at the continental football showpiece in Cameroon, defending champions Algeria exploded in mid-air with a draw and two defeats.
ID/fss/abj/APA