Football Match

Last Sunday was quiet an experience for some of us from the ship. A group of what ended up been about 45 of us decided we would go to cheer on the country of our current residency Benin as they played in a world cup qualifier game against Mali. I would have to say the Mali with a few more well known players than Benin would have to be the favourites in my book, but it was a do or die situation with both teams needing a win so it made for an exciting game.

The day started with us going to get tickets for everyone in the morning to make sure we got in before they sold out. There were 3 options in tickets a 1000CFA, 2000CFA and 5000CFA(460CFA = $1), we were told by a local driver who was taking us to pick up the tickets that the 1000 and 2000CFA tickets were the same the only difference was that one cost more and then the 5000CFA ticket got you a nicer seat in a sheltered area. So we bought a bunch of both tickets with some people wanting to the cheaper option and some wanting the nicer seats.

We went back to the ship and handed out the tickets and went about our days before gathering together at 1pm to head to the game. We hired a few local mini buses to take us to the stadium and made sure we left early knowing that the traffic would be bad and the line to get into the stadium would also be bad. After getting in we sat and waited for the match to start as the stadium rapidly filled up. We were easy to spot in the crowd a bunch of Yovos (white people) all sitting in a row in Benin supporter shirts.

For most of the match it wasn’t very exciting football although the atmosphere in the crowd was great. With about 10 mins to go though Mali scored a goal and then things got a bit exciting. Benin was doing all they could to try and get the scores back level but to no avail. Until just before the game finished Benin managed to get the goal and the stadium erupted with cheers from the crowd. The game ended in a draw 1-1 and now you would think this would be the best fair outcome, but what it means is now both Benin and Mali have no chance to qualify for the world cup.