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| Mali: DIARRA and KANOUTE case |
By giving precedence to clubs over countries FIFA chairman Sepp BLATTER has probably played with fire in what it's advisable to call "DIA and KANOUTE case"!
Last week Mali international players Mahamadou DIARRA and Frederic KANOUTE who play respectively for Spanish clubs Real Madrid and FC Seville were in their country to play with their national team a crucial qualifying match against Sierra Leone for the 2008 African Cup of Nations. But since the two clubs had also to play a decisive game for the title of champion of Spain, the Spanish Football Federation successfully lobbied FIFA on their behalf. Then FIFA sent a fax to the Mali Football Association (FMF)summoning them to get both DIARRA and KANOUTE back to Spain to help their clubs in the final title-deciding matches of the season played yesterday sunday 17 June, on the ground that this week-end's National Cup qualifiers were not provided for in the internationally-agreed calendar.
Infuriated by the situation, DIARRA claimed that he found FIFA's behaviour 'scandalous'. In an interview to French sports newspaper 'L'Equipe' he said FIFA has shown "a lack of respect for African football and Africans in general. National teams are supposed to take precedence over clubs but it seems FIFA has changed its rule 72 hours before a match."
FIFA president's delegate Jerome CHAMPAGNE however awkwardly tried to argue by saying that "FIFA has been defending federations regardless of their size, continent or ranking. But sometimes we have to intervene when we consider that common sense should be in favour of the clubs. We are the people who are bringing the World Cup to Africa and we run all sorts of projects to benefit the continent, including ones in Bamako." In another way FIFA tried again clumsily to implicitly reject on CAF (African Football Confederation) the responsibility of the mess by insinuating that CAF did not produce in time the Nations Cup fixtures for the creation of the international coordinated calendar. What's more FIFA ruled on Thursday 14 June that the clubs have priority as the Spanish league fixtures were made before the Nations Cup matches were scheduled. FIFA spokesman Andreas HERREN confirmed that in plain language: "The request for this week-end Cup of Nations fixtures were submitted by CAF to FIFA after the fixtures for the Spanish championship were already in place. According to FIFA rules this means the players are not suject to a 'compulsory release' to play for their country."
Gerard DREYFUS of Radio France International has a different position on the matter. He reminds that during the 22-23 March meeting of the executive committee this year attended by Sepp BLATTER, the chairmen of both CAF and UEFA and the president of the Spanish Football Federation who is also deputy chairman of FIFA the representatives of CAF confirmed to the participants that the matches of the next round of the African Nations Cup qualifiers were due to be played between 15, 16 and 17 June 2007, and nobody objected. Gerard DREYFUS also reminds that many of the best players in Europe are Africans and they deserve the same respect as their European counterparts. He also insists on the fact that the rules should prevail.
Last week-end BLATTER admitted that he had probably made a mistake on that issue but he did not ask the Spanish Football Federation to let DIARRA and KANOUTE to back to Mali to play for their national team...
Samuel MBAJUM
(Source: BBC Sport, and Gerard DREYFUS, RFI)
18/06/2007 |
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