FIFTY years to the month three World Cup matches sparked the Football War – a four-day military conflict between El Salvador and Honduras which left thousands of people dead and many more displaced – the fans of the Warriors of Zimbabwe and the Cranes of Uganda engaged in a 21st Century cyberwar this week that caught the imagination of the continent.
For days, the two parties turned to the Internet, with Twitter their favourite platform, trading jabs, hooks and uppercuts in defence of their nations, in support of their national teams, some of the blows were below the belt, others were fine and, by the end of the show, just like in the game itself, fate ensured it ended in a stalemate.
Now, both countries turn their focus to new and important assignments – Zimbabwe take on DRC and Uganda have a duel against hosts Egypt here tomorrow.
It was a no-holds-barred contest, patriotism was the defining factor, it’s either you were with them or not, there was no room for retreat, no chance for surrender, every inch of the battlefield occupied, every missile launched towards the opponents, each army fuelled by nationalistic energy.
They clogged the cyberspaces with messages, in support for their troops, and mocking their rivals, in support of their countries and mocking the other nation, in support of their coaches, and mocking those standing in the other dug-outs, at times it turned political and, at other times, it turned comical.
Pictures of the streets of Harare, the beautiful ones without the traffic madness that has become a part of life on these avenues, were posted on Twitter while dusty streets of Kampala were juxtaposed to show the difference between the two capitals, to brag about being Zimbabwean, and being the Warriors.
It appears the politics, which usually divide the Zimbabweans, was forgotten, as they united on this front to defend their country, united by their Warriors, whom they believed were a stronger team than the Cranes even though the Ugandans had started their 2019 AFCON campaign with a victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The scars from the wounds of January 2017, when the Confederation of African Football handed Ugandan goalkeeper, Denis Onyango, the prestigious prize of African Player of the Year – Based in Africa for the previous year, at the CAF Awards in Abuja, Nigeria, ahead of Khama Billiat, were opened.
Many Zimbabweans had tipped Billiat, who came second in the race, to win the award after being strongly tipped by many experts in the countdown to the awards, but Onyango pulled a surprise and emerged the winner with a number of fans, back home, blaming the CAF politics for the outcome.
Zimbabweans have always felt the CAF leadership, especially the one that used to rule the game on this continent during the days of Cameroonian strongman Issa Hayatou, had always worked against their interests, including somehow stripping them the right to host the 2000 AFCON finals which, two years earlier, had only been hosted in two cities in Burkina Faso.
That Kelechi Iheanacho, the Nigerian international striker, who was named the Most Promising Talent in African football back then, isn’t even part of the players at this AFCON finals having failed to make the Super Eagles squad, was feasted upon by the Zimbabweans, in those Twitter wars, as another example of the flawed system that had resulted in Onyango winning the award ahead of Billiat.
There was consolation for the Zimbabwean fans when Billiat was named in the CAF Team of the Year alongside the likes of Serge Aurier (Cote d’Ivoire), Aymen Abdenour (Tunisia), Eric Bailly (Cote d’Ivoire), Joyce Lomalisa (DRC), Rainford Kalaba (Zambia), Keegan Dolly (South Africa), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon), Sadio Mane (Senegal) and Riyad Mahrez (Algeria).
And, when Billiat stroked home that beauty, past Onyango in that 1-1 draw on Wednesday night, it gave the Zimbabweans the wings they were looking for to keep alive their cyberspace fight against their Ugandan counterparts, their bragging rights being fueled even further by the way their Warriors dominated that encounter.
That Onyango even paid the ultimate respect for Billiat, must have cheered the thousands of those Zimbabweans who were battling on that cyberspace front.
“It’s not good to concede‚ but it was a very good goal from Khama,’’
the giant goalkeeper said. “Much respect‚ because he’s a top player.’’
Billiat has been the outstanding player for the Warriors in this
adventure in which his skills have illuminated the big stage again and
attracted the interests of many teams, including Egyptian powerhouse Al
Ahly, who are being pushed by their fans to secure the signature of the
lively forward.
But, the Zimbabwean forward, who will again be expected to play an influential role when his team battle for the win tomorrow against the DRC that could secure them an historic place in the knockout stages, for the first time, says his main concern right now is to deliver for his country.
“I don’t know what the future would be like. I just wanna win that game and make sure we go to the next round, we want to win, we wanna give everything, we want three points,’’ he said.
“I think it’s good to create chances because we can work on scoring than not to create chances, you still have to work on creating chances for you to score. I believe it’s positive for us, to create chances, as strikers need to step up and take more responsibility. We need to give ourselves responsibilities, I hope we can do it against DR Congo.’’
Then, Billiat also praised the Cranes.
“Uganda is a very good team and they also gave us a good challenge.’’
So, while the cyberspace battles might not have been that complimentary
between the two sets of fans, it appears the players had the last word
and, as they paid respect to each other, the war on Twitter also
appeared to die down.
After all, the spoils had been shared on the field. Quite a contrast to what happened, 50 years ago, when some ill-tempered World Cup matches, marred by violence, between El Salvador and Honduras sparked the Football War between the two countries.
“There were much bigger political matters,” Ricardo Otero, a Mexican
sports journalist at broadcaster Univision, told BBC Sport this week.
“But there was this coincidence of three games to qualify for the 1970
World Cup. It didn’t help. Football here [in Latin America] is very,
very passionate – for good and for bad.” By the time political mediation
stopped the war, with the Organisation of American States arranging a
ceasefire on 18 July, it is estimated that about 3 000 people, most of
them being Hondurans, had died in the four-day conflict.
At least, the cyberspace war between Zimbabwean and Ugandan fans didn’t come at such a cost and, interestingly, both teams could still march into the knock-out stages of this AFCON finals tomorrow.
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