MALI 2002 - The African Cup Of Nations XXIII
   The qualification - GROUP 5

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Group 5
A- Uganda, B- Guinea, C- Senegal, D- Sierra Leone / Togo
This is another quite interesting group. There is not too much difference between Senegal, Guinea, and the winners from Togo/Sierra Leone, especially when considered that Senegal and Guinea will focus on World Cup qualifiers in a parallel competition. Togo is involved in that, too, but unlike the other two should have no chance there. Meanwhile Uganda will do everything to put their name back on the map. But their biggest deficit is their weakness in away matches.

--> match facts and/or reports

--> schedule, table and results of this group

Uganda - Guinea  3:1
dailysoccer.com/reuters:
Uganda - Hassan Mubiru 14, 31, Andrew Mukasa 77 
Guinea - Pascal Feindouno 44 
Halftime: 2-1; Attendance: 30,000 

Senegal - Togo  0:0

Guinea - Senegal 1:0
Radio Africa 1: very good game, late goal

Togo-Uganda 3:0 
Scorers: Tadjou Salou 30 pen, Kossi Noutsoudje 49, Kader Cougbadja-Toure 73, att. 30,000 
 

Guinea - Togo  0:0 

Uganda - Senegal 1:1
0:1('6) Thiaw Pape, 1:1 ('69) Mathias Kawesa, att.: 25,000

Senegal - Uganda 3:0 
('18  El Hadj Diouf, '40 Henri Camara, '85 El Hadj Diouf), Uganda one man down from middle of first half on(thanks to Faye for updates), att. 50,000, Senegal qualified for Nations Cup

Guinea disqualified
Guinea has been disqualified from the competition after being banned from all international competitions by FIFA after a government interference into the Football Association affairs which is not allowed after FIFA rules.
(Because of some contradictory reports one has to be a little careful about the finality of this decision).
A relief for Senegal and a blow for Uganda who had been in a hopeful position to revive East African football. Now suddenly struggeling Senegal was able to clinch qualification by a simple victory in the direct encounter on March 24/25.

the background of the Guinea case:
After the draw with Malawi the Guinean Sports minister had dissolved the Guinean Football Federation (!) and so Guinea had violated the independence principle of football associations inside FIFA. So FIFA had set a deadline to reinstall the association board as elected, otherwise Guinea would have faced exclusion from the World Cup. Guinea set up a new federation board in time but did not reinstall the old one, which was insufficient to FIFA. The consequence was the immediate suspension of the Guinean federation from international competitions after passing the first deadline (March 2nd).
The punishment came very hard for the U17 selection of the country who had just reached the final of the African U 17 championship and so qualified for the World U17 championships later the year. The suspension meant disqualification for them (before that final against Nigeria was played) and also the loss of the place at that World championships. A cruel punishment for the boys who became more or less hostages of both sides in that affair (why not a later deadline?).
When another deadline (March 18th) had passed FIFA reacted with exclusion of all international competitions including World Cup, African Nations Cup, and international club competitions.

In Africa sports is often seen as a matter of highest national importance and sports ministers are much more directly concerned with sports matters than their European counterparts (for example there is no sports minister in Germany). Often they even select and pay the coaches of the national teams. So interference with the associations is often a reason for clashes with FIFA rules which try to protect the independence of the football associations whose leaderships have to be democratically legitamised. 
In another case Tanzania had been banned since last September and might now return to the international football 'family' after agreeing to cooperate with FIFA.

Uganda had been left with a minimal theoretical chance. This went up in smoke when quarrels inside Uganda football weakened the squad decisively. The remaining squad lost the match easily.

Uganda - Togo  0:3
*Togo qualified

week 6
Jun 15-17, 2001
 

Togo - Senegal 1:0