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Not a Cup to remember?

AFP, Tunis
Accusations of cheating, botched organisation, gamesmanship and scuffles between police and fans.
For many, they will be the bitter-sweet experiences of the 2004 African Nations Cup which was won by Tunisia here on Saturday after three weeks in which the standards rarely rose beyond the medicore.
From the time Zied Jaziri scored the first goal of the tournament on January 24 until the same player buried the title-winning tapin three weeks later, the Nations Cup posed more questions than answers.
How can a nation, who aspire to host a World Cup, tolerate national anthems being jeered?
What caused their opponents to constantly complain of their campaigns being sabotaged?
The Tunisian people will tolerate the detractors as their team, well-marshalled by the rehabilitated Roger Lemerre, made the most of Rades Stadium's intimidating atmosphere to swoop on a first African Cup with a 2-1 win against Morocco.
But their progress to the final was marred by controversy especially their 1-0 win in the last eight against Senegal.
Senegal's El Hadji Diouf was hit with a three-match ban for violent conduct as he argued with referee Ali Busjaim after he claimed he had been fouled at the start of the move which led to the only goal.
That ban was increased to four games while three members of the backroom staff were banned from the touchline for twelve months.
The winning goal was scored
by Jawhar Mnari and the irony would not have been lost on Democratic Republic of Congo striker Lomana LuaLua, who was sent off in his team's game against the hosts at Rades.
He had gently kicked-out at the ankles of Mnari who responded by collapsing theatrically to the ground, holding his head and writhing in agony.
"Ever since we arrived here, they treated us like shit," said LuaLua.
DR Congo coach Mick Wadsworth was equally unimpressed.
"All along there were problems. It's very difficult to play in this environment," said the Englishman who claimed that his team had been allocated a training ground two hours from their hotel.
He was also outraged that he and his staff were denied the traditional courtesy of being given tickets to watch Tunisia's opening match against Rwanda.
All six opponents who played Tunisia had their national anthems booed.
The local federation was fined 1,000 dollars but the problem persisted.
The wrong anthem, also jeered, was played for Nigeria at the start of the semi-finals with the organisers then adding a bizarre twist by eventually finding the right one and ordering both teams to line up again at the start of the second half.
"It was insulting," said Nigeria coach Christian Chukwu. "It was a deliberate attempt to destablise the team. Even when the right one was played after half-time, we still couldn't hear it because of the whistling by the crowd. They showed a lack of respect and it is not acceptable."
Also deemed unacceptable was the behaviour of Algeria's
fans who cost their federation almost 40,000 dollars in fines.
Against bitter rivals Egypt, missiles were thrown onto the pitch and things got worse in the quarter-final defeat to Morocco where seats were ripped up and lobbed onto the field at Sfax before supporters got involved in running battles with police. Sixty-nine people were injured.
On the pitch, tournament cofavourites Cameroon, who had been bidding for a third successive title and record fifth in all, and Senegal both flopped in the quarter-finals.
Senegal set the tone for their poor campaign with a laboured 00 draw against Burkina Faso and always looked a pale shadow of the team which reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002.
Nigeria's Super Eagles lost their opening match to Morocco, kicked out three players for breaking a night-time curfew but, inspired by player of the tournament Jay Jay Okocha, made the semi-finals where they lost to Tunisia on a shoot-out.
If an old hand like Okocha had a good tournament, then so did new recruits to the African cause, Silva dos Santos, Brazilian-born but playing for Tunisia, and Frederic Kanoute.
The Tottenham striker traded in France for Mali and finished joint top-scorer with four goals, alongside Santos, Patrick Mboma, Okocha and Youssef Mokhtari, and fully justified his controversial switch of nationalities.
The tournament's minnows too can look back on a good Tunisia 2004.
Zimbabwe, who finished bottom of their group, had the satisfaction of taking the lead in every game they played while Rwanda, making their debut, came within a point of making it to the quarterfinals.