SA coach Pitso Mosimane. What a plonker!

[Dark Munster]

Remember Alan Ball (RIP), when manager of Man City, instructed his players near the end of their end of season match against liverpool to hang on to a draw? He heard from someone in the crowd that we were losing (which was false), so erroneously thought a draw would prevent City from being relegated. Well that was a minor mistake compared to this idiocy:

 

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/11/10/09/SOCCER_South_Africa.html&TEAMHD=soccer&BID=165

 

 

How the hell can the coach not know the tie-breaking rules before the final match? I knew many footballers are thick, but this takes the cake!

[JackFrost]

Remember Alan Ball (RIP), when manager of Man City, instructed his players near the end of their end of season match against liverpool to hang on to a draw? He heard from someone in the crowd that we were losing (which was false), so erroneously thought a draw would prevent City from being relegated. Well that was a minor mistake compared to this idiocy:

 

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/11/10/09/SOCCER_South_Africa.html&TEAMHD=soccer&BID=165

 

 

How the hell can the coach not know the tie-breaking rules before the final match? I knew many footballers are thick, but this takes the cake!

 

It's not so much the coach's/team's fault actually. CAF basically made up the qualifying criteria as they went along. South Africa, Niger and Sierra Leone all ended up on the same points and Niger went through despite SA having a better goal difference and head to head record against Niger. Apparently CAF announced while the Niger-Egypt match was taking place it would be decided by a "mini-tournament" in the group. Their also not sure Burkina Faso have qualified in an argument over ineligible player

 

You just have to be a regular watcher of the African Cup of Nations like me to know the disorganised, incompetant and corrupt way African football is run. Each year it tends to be mericilessly rigged in the host nation's favour and when you get incidents like playing the wrong national anthem before one of Nigeria's quarter final matches and ball boys deliberately taking minutes to give the ball back to a team who are losing to the host nation, and referee's allowing goals scored by the host nation hen their player is 10 yards offside and medical staff driving those stretcher buggies on the pitch and 'accidentally' mowing down players, you get the idea of how it is run. I remember back in the 90s I first watched it and they hadn't even painted the lines on the pitch correctly and the halfway line was 20 yards closer to one goal than the other

 

It gets more farcical every tournament and it's why I love watching it. Add in the eccentric/simply hopeless goalkeepers and it's worth watching just for the sheer comedy value. It's the tournament that really does combine the sublime with the ridiculous.

Edited 10 October, 2011 by JackFrost

[Deano6]

I disagree. Its completely their fault. The tie-breaking rules are clearly on the CAF website.

 

It's fairly common practise in qualifying tournaments to use head-to-head as tie-breaker. It's the same in the Euros qualifiers where Montenegro would have finished ahead of England had they beat them (and Switzerland) due to better results against us (would have been a draw and a win), even if England maintained their better goal difference in the group.

 

You mention that SA had a better head to head against Niger (won 2-0, lost 2-1). That would have been enough were it not that Sierra Leone also had 9 points and need to be brought into the equation. SA had two 0-0 draws with Sierra Leone, so using your logic they would be level, yet Niger beat Sierra Leone 3-1 and lost 1-0, so should finish above them. The only way to ensure consistency is to form a mini-table with just those teams. This basically has the effect of removing results against the weakest team, who they would all perhaps be expected to beat (think of a San Marino type team, although in fairness here it was Egypt).

 

When you look at that mini-league Niger came out on top as they had 2 wins and 2 losses v the other two (6 points), while SA and SL each had a win, 2 draws and a loss (5 points).

 

The rest of the organisation of this tournament may well be a shambles, but this rule is being applied fairly and is consistent with the rest of world football.