Nairobi News

Sports

Mauritania President stops ‘boring’ football match


A cup final match in Mauritania was stopped and decided on penalties with more than 25 minutes to full time because the country’s president felt the game was “boring”.

According to reports on Gazzetta World, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who was in attendance for the Super Cup final match between FC Tevragh-Zeina and ACS Ksar felt the game wasn’t entertaining enough and ordered for a straight penalty shootout after just 63 minutes of play.

A standard football match, as per Fifa rules, has to be played for atleast 90 minutes with additional time added for stoppages and possibly an extra time of 30 minutes before post match penalty kicks are taken if it is match that requires to have an outright winner, as was the case in the match in Mauritania.

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The head of state was said to have become impatient with the tempo of the game, which was tied at 1-1 at the time when he issued the order.

Zeina won the match on penalties, but there was an outcry from the fans who felt that the president had influenced the outcome of the match.

However, the country’s football federation sought to explain the situation with a statement that seemed to absolve President Aziz from blame.

“I deny in the strongest terms the intervention of the President of the Republic. The decision was made due ​​to organisational issues in accordance with the presidents and the coaches of the two teams,” the federation’s president, Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane, told Gazetta World.