Ramadan, Diouf and island games

What's an Argentine coach doing managing an Indian Ocean team to a competition? His opponents include Madagascar, who may need characters from the Hollywood movie to give tactical advice to the ailing national team. Speaking of advice, should African Muslim players be urged to postpone fasting to improve performance? It's this week's Africa Report.

Diouf shown the door

Senegal's FA has had it. They've thrown him out. And at this point, it may be statistically stressful to count how many times El-Hadji Diouf has tangled with the ruling bodies.
Five years, that's how long Augustin Senghor and his colleagues at the FA decided to ban him for. Diouf had been baited by a Radio France International reporter in July, having been asked what he thought of football administration in his country and the continent. He sunk his teeth into the microphone. "They (the country's football authorities) are afraid of my reactions," he spat, going on, "I am someone whose views count for something."

His views do count for something, as Senghor acknowledged last Sunday while explaining the ban. "El-Hadji Diouf is a pride to our country. No one can doubt or deny that. But also, don't forget he has been involved in disorders, causing great harm to our national football and leading to the exit of the Teranga Lions from a number of African Cup of Nations editions."

To think that a decade ago the crowds were chanting Diamant Noir! (Black Diamond) at his every touch. They obviously thought of his worth in relation to the epithet and definitely not the character of an actual black diamond, which is inferior.

Since the early 2000s, Diouf has continuously been proving his nickname to have a double meaning. Diamonds are the hardest stuff known to man. Diouf, being Diouf, had to show his country that he's as hard as he's expensive. "I will go to war if Senghor and the FA go through with this."

In such situations you'd expect one or two of his national team-mates to say something. No chance. Diouf has consistently maligned their contributions, calling them colourful names ranging from varying species of plants to exotic breeds of Senegalese animals.

And what of his other African football colleagues - would they pitch a defence? Not if they remember this sound bite, among several others, from 2006: "I think the wrong team is going to the World Cup. If you have seen Ghana, and then you see Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria, you know the wrong team is going."

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