Mali's missing flame

The main stadium is way from being complete

By Joan Baxter in Bamako, Mali

A planned flame-lighting ceremony in Bamako to signal a significant stage in Mali's preparedness to host the 2002 African Cup of Nations failed to happen on Thursday night.

The municipal authorities in the city promised to light a Cup of Nations flame that would burn until the final match on February 10, 2002.

The public was invited to show up en masse at the Mamadou Konate stadium for the 'launch of CAN 2002' in the capital, but for some reason, which no one seemed able to give, there was no flame.

But there was lots of distraction nevertheless.

The national orchestra, Badema, performed the catchy new theme song of CAN 2002 and six huge balloons were sent sailing into the evening sky.

Elders of football

Also gracing the occasion were the elders of Malian football - the men who made up the country's very first national team.

They took to the stage to recall the glory days when Mali's Eagles really flew and made the CAN finals in 1965 and 1972.

Behind all the pomp of the ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Mande Sidibe, government ministers and foreign diplomats, it looked very much like an effort to rekindle enthusiasm for the CAN and perhaps extinguish doubts that Mali can be ready for the final CAF inspection tour in September this year.

Earlier this week, the Minister of Sport, Adama Kone, announced that because of strikes by workers on the 26th of March stadium in Bamako, its opening has been delayed until September, just four months before the CAN is to start.

Protests

In recent weeks, students protesting the decade-long education crisis in the country, have carried placards saying there will be no CAN or presidential elections in 2002 - not unless something is done to improve schooling in Mali.

One Malian sportsman suggested the launching ceremony was intended to 'distract the people of Bamako from the new football levies imposed since April 1'.

These are to help pay for the football extravaganza, which is sure to leave the country even deeper in debt, particularly to the Chinese firm building the stadia and airports in five venue cities.

In a rouse-the-troops speech, one top city official, Ismaila Cisse, said that for CAN 2002 to succeed, all citizens had to help out.

He issued a long list of great expectations that included a massive clean-up and face-lift for the capital, removal of beggars and traders from the roads, and an end to football violence and mayhem in the stadia.

It is a tall order.