Burden of expectation

Hopes in Mali for African Nations Cup

BAMAKO (Reuters) -- African Nations Cup host Mali carries a heavy burden of expectation into Saturday's opening game of the three-week tournament but faces a Liberian team which has been sidetracked by a pay dispute in the week leading up to the start of the continental championship.

Saturday's group A game at the newly-built March 26 stadium is expected to attract a capacity crowd of 60,000 as Mali makes its first appearance at the finals since 1994 and the 16-nation tournament gets underway after several weeks of frenetic buildup.

The west African country, often described among the poorest in the world, has embarked on an ambitious programme of building for the 16-nation tournament with spending, on five new stadiums and other infra-structure, estimated by officials to be more than 100-million Euros.

"An entire country has mobilized its energies despite skeptics who said they could not pull it off," said Confederation of African Football president Issa Hayatou ahead of the opening game.

But now the focus switches to Mali's footballers, who have mixed results in their pre-tournament preparations and little experience of playing at the highest level of the African game.

"It's a game we have to win for our supporters. Here has been massive interest and now that the games are here we have to concentrate on our task," said Mali's defender Adama Coulibaly, who plays at French league leaders Lens.

Mali has an unbeaten record in six previous meetings with Liberia and is favorite to start its campaign with three points.

Liberia's preparations have been disruptive, first with a fight between the federation and team leader George Weah over the site of the pre-tournament training camp, then the withdrawal of captain Joe Nagbe, who wanted to stay with his club in Greece, and then a brief player strike this week.

On Tuesday the team refused to train after demanding US$15,000 a man to participate in the tournament but resumed its training the next day and arrived in Mali on Wednesday night.

Former World Footballer of the Year George Weah, whose exploits for Monaco and Paris St Germain early in his career have made him a favorite in Francophone Africa, is the focus of public attention on the eve of the game but home team striker Mamadou Bagayoko said the ageing 35-year-old striker held little fear for him or his teammates.

"We are not concentrating on Weah or the Liberian team. We're going into the game with serenity and lots of enthusiasm. I think Liberia are a good team but so are we, even a good choice to win this cup," said the Strasbourg striker.

Liberia is making only its second African Nations Cup appearance but is given little chance in a group that also includes Algeria and World Cup finalist Nigeria.

History points against host

Recent African Nations Cup history points ominously against Mali getting off to a winning start in Saturday's opening match.

Only one of the last five Nations Cup hosts has won the opening game of the tournament or even gone on to reach the final of the African championship.

South Africa, which hosted the 1996 edition, was the last home team to start its campaign with three points, beating Cameroon 3-0 in Johannesburg on its way to claiming the title.

But Burkina Faso two years later and Ghana in 2000 both failed in their opening matches with the Burkinabe losing and Ghana drawing, both against Cameroon too.

The 1992 host Senegal and 1994 host Tunisia suffered embarrassing defeats in their first matches in front of expectant home fans.

Senegal later went out at the quarterfinal stages while Tunisia crashed out after just two matches.

Its opening game defeat eight years ago came at the hands of Mali, which has not competed in the African Nations Cup since.

From 1959, when the second Nations Cup tournament was held, until the 14th edition in the Ivory Coast in 1984, no home side were beaten in the opening game but the trend changed dramatically since 1992.

 

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