Sport Matters

The demise of eight football fans in a stampede at Olembe Stadium on Monday has left another dark blot on the beautiful game and the Afcon tournament currently on in Cameroon.  With proper security measures in place the tragedy could have been avoided, that's what we many football think. Maybe not.  But one thing that's clear is that the tournament in Cameroon is proving to be among the best in the recent times despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The smaller nations in the tournament have come to the party in a big way so much it is expected that one of them will reach the semifinals. That will come as a big boost to the African game after heroics by minnows such as Comoros and Malawi for instance before they fell in the last-16 round. The tragedy at Olembe nothwithstanding, I feel football-loving Africans need a football anecdote of global proportions to comfort their hearts.  Though the main stadium for the Afcon tournament is widely known as Olembe, it