Climbing Through Windows to Try to Get Training Time, OR: Who’s Running this Tournament, Anyway?

January 16th, 2010 | by: Laurie | View Comments

When you’re good enough to ply your trade in Europe and play international football, you’ve got an easy life, right? Ask Malian captain and Real Madrid player Mahamadou Diarra (pictured.)

Diarra’s life was so glamourous yesterday, in fact, that he and his team were reduced to begging security staff to allow them onto the pitch for their scheduled training time. And, when that didn’t work, they found themselves trying to climb through windows. And when that didn’t work, they just headed back to their hotel, having not trained for their must-win match against Malawi on Monday.

The reason? Even though it was Mali’s scheduled practice time, the Algerian team was on the pitch. And they were allowed to stay there because… Well, y’know, first come, first serve.

Who’s to blame? The officials say it’s fellow Group A members Algeria:

Later, the local Africa Cup of Nations organising committee (LOC) told AFP that Algeria had been at fault, and not them.

LOC media officer Virgilio Santos explained: “This mix-up had nothing to do with us. What happened was this: Mali were supposed to travel to Cabinda today, but delayed their trip until Saturday.

“Algeria were supposed to train at the stadium until 1700, but when they saw the Mali team turn up they decided to make life difficult for Mali and they didn’t leave the pitch until 1815, which made Mali angry.”

It’s hard to tell if this is true, particularly since this is the not the first time this has happened, and for a Group A team, too. Malawi had two days before their loss to Angola when they were unable to train because the pitch they were scheduled to be on was in use. Yes, twice.

Does kind of make you go Hmmm, yeah? Especially since the host country are in the group?

I’m not sayin’, y’know? I’m just sayin’: Helluva way to run a major international tournament.

This is even more important because Group A is still very much up for grabs, as you can see in the table (which I cheerfully swiped from our Malawi blog):

If Algeria was at fault, it’s hard to see what they would stand to gain from this little bit of gamesmanship. If I’m reading the tiebreak table correctly (tiebreak criteria shown at the bottom), if they beat Angola, they go through regardless. If they lose and either Malawi or Mali win, they’re going home. If Algeria and Angola draw and Mali wins, the first tiebreak is head-to-head, so Algeria goes through because they beat Mali. And if both games end in draws, Malawi goes through because they beat Algeria 3-0. So Algeria may have actually hurt their chances by helping a team that could send them home.

If the responsible party was Algeria.

Like I said. Hmmm.

Tie-breaking criteria
If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:[7]

1. points earned in the matches between the teams concerned;
2. goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned;
3. number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned;
4. goal difference in all group matches;
5. number of goals scored in all group matches;
6. fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards;
7. drawing of lots by the organising committee.