On The Mark: CAF President Motsepe vows to end hostile host tactics in African football

Patrice Motsepe has promised a tightening of the rules amid the furore over the treatment meted out to Nigeria earlier this month as they arrived in Libya for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Benghazi, and in good time.

The Confederation of African Football president was obviously as alarmed as the rest of the continent over the (non) welcome afforded Nigeria on their trip to north Africa and will now hopefully put stricter regulations in place.

They flew in on a charter plane, which was diverted minutes before landing from Benghazi to a rarely used airfield some 250km away, where the Super Eagles squad, including many top stars from European football, sat around and waited … and waited.

After 12 hours, they packed up and headed home again, refusing to play the game. You can understand why.

On the weekend, CAF’s disciplinary committee found Libya guilty of ignoring CAF rules and regulations that stipulate welcoming protocols for incoming teams.

Ideally, they should be met by a welcoming committee, helped to move expeditiously through immigration and customs formalities, put on a bus to their hotel and given proper training facilities ahead of the game.

The reality in African football is anything but … and it needs to stop.

TALES OF GAMESMANSHIP

It almost weekly that some tale of gamesmanship emerges from an international fixture on the continent, contrary to the spirit of hospitality that Africans are supposed to be famous for.

Previously, hosting countries would be responsible for the ground transportation and lodging of visiting sides, who needed only get themselves to their destination and were then reliant on the goodwill of their hosts.

As a result, sides were put in atrocious hotels, miles away from the match and/or training venues and subjected to underhand tactics designed to frustrate.

Some incidents were worse than others, like the time Bafana Bafana trained in Pointe Noire on the eve of a vital World Cup qualifier with Congo but arrived at the venue to find armed soldiers refusing them entry. When the team eventually forced their way in, they had to practice with these same soldiers menacingly patrolling the perimetre of the pitch.

Anyone who has ever been on as trip with a team to an African nation will have story of some shenanigans or other. Stellenbosch were telling me just the other day how their bus from the airport in Kinshasa to their hotel was repeatedly stopped at roadblocks and police came on board to search the team’s bags. It was almost like it was a pre-arranged farce, designed to add to the team’s fatigue after a long journey.

CAF must be more specific in their rules on how visiting sides must be treated and stipulate a proper code of conduct. Any deviation should be harshly dealt with.

The problem with CAF is that they are not hard enough with their punishment. Libya lose the points to Nigeria and got a $50 000 fine. But what of those who order the plane’s diversion and set up the whole shocking episode.

Who were they? And if they are football officials, surely should face stiff sanction, even be kicked out of the game?