Sierra Leone
95: 0 and 91: 1 – football manager is “no game manipulation known”
Soccer fans in Sierra Leone have been able to watch two strange games recently. The results: 95:0 and 91:1.
© Sunday Alamba / Picture Alliance
When your soccer team goes down 0:95, you may get the idea that something is wrong. Especially when the parallel game ends 91:1. Managers at Sierra Leonean clubs are not at a loss for excuses. The association is investigating.
First rule when manipulating football games: the result must not be so unbelievable that no one believes it. Four clubs from Sierra Leone recently flouted this principle.
Kahunla Rangers and Gulf FC of Kono went neck and neck for the final spot in the country’s Premier League playoffs. It was clear that goal difference would decide. Gulf FC eventually outclassed Koquima Lebanon 91-1. Kahunla countered at the same time with a 95-0 win over Lumbebu United. Anything but ordinary football results. The football association therefore announced investigations into suspected match-fixing.
“We cannot stand by and let an embarrassing situation like this go unpunished,” association president Thomas Daddy Brima told BBC Sport Africa. There is “zero tolerance” for manipulation; all those responsible would be held accountable. The country’s anti-corruption commission should also deal with the case.
Club Manager: Was just a friendly game
Club officials rushed to come up with excuses. The chairman of Koquima Lebanon suddenly declared that the decisive game to qualify for the playoffs was actually just a friendly game. He even disputed the result of 91:1. He has since been informed that the league game did not take place. Instead, it was an encounter between “community players, including some Koquima players” to entertain the fans who bought tickets.
The flood of goals began in the second half after Kahunla had been 2-0 and Gulf FC 7-1 at half-time. Kahunla then managed 93 goals in 45 minutes, Gulf FC 84. However, the referee didn’t see the goals scored by the Gulf players because he refused to referee the second half at half-time. Another referee was found.
In the parallel game, the Lumbebu manager had also taken over the coaching job on an interim basis – and then, according to his own statements, lost track of things. “We conceded a lot of goals in the second half,” Mohamed Jan Saeid Jalloh told BBC Sport Africa. “I was frustrated and at one point even left the sidelines in anger. I couldn’t concentrate after that, so I can’t even say how many goals we conceded in total,” said Jalloh. In any case, he was “not aware of any game manipulation”.
Apologies to football fans around the world
However, Kahunla CEO Eric Kaitell managed to apologize: “I would like to apologize to football fans across the country and around the world for the strange record of my club Kahunla Rangers. I would like to emphatically say that I experienced such an unsportsmanlike condemn the behavior of my team and the other teams involved in the strongest possible terms.”
The Sierra Leone Football Association must now decide what consequences this farce will have for the clubs and those responsible for them. The only thing that seems certain is that none of the clubs involved will take part in the playoffs for the country’s first division.
Source: BBC