The on-going 34th Africa Cup of Nations will go down as one competition with a lot of history, particularly on the giant killing escapades of countries hitherto known as minnows. Mauritania is one of these underdogs.
On Tuesday, many African football lovers were shocked when lowly-rated Mauritania eliminated two-time champions, Algeria, from the AFCON, securing their first ever win at the championship. The 34th African Cup of Nations holding in Cote d’Ivoire is the third for Mauritania.
A country largely covered by desert, Mauritania lies in northwest Africa with a population of about four million people.
For 18 years, between 1995-2003, Mauritania never won a single football match. And in 2010, the country withdrew from AFCON qualifiers en route Angola 2010 due to financial crisis.
A year later, 2011, Mauritania was ranked 207 by World Football governing body, FIFA, thus becoming the poorest football country in the World. But things began to take an upward swing for Mauritania in the middle of 2011, when Ahmed Yahya was elected as the FA president.
Yahya settled down for work immediately by restructuring the league, a department that holds the key position in football development.
Determined to succeed, the FA boss, Yahya, set up Mauritania youth teams and got the country’s biggest Telcom to sponsor their league. He also fixed players’ salaries to ensure they stayed focused on football alone.
Perhaps, Yahya’s biggest contribution to Mauritania’s football was using the €10m FIFA Goal Project funds to their advantage, unlike some countries, including Nigeria, where such funds usage is shrouded in mystery.
Yahya renovated their national stadium with the FIFA Goal Project funds, and also build an ultra-modern FA Headquarters.
Yahya also built a training complex with hotel rooms and TV/Radio studio, where he camped the country’s U-15 team and started a youth development programme, which opened the floodgate of success for the country.
A few months later, Mauritania won their first away game in history, beating the Leone Stars of Liberia.
On his tour of Africa, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, praised Mauritania as one of the few African countries with proper accountability of the FIFA funds.
By 2019, Mauritania qualified for their first AFCON held in Egypt and also repeated the feat in 2021 with a squad that included some of the youth players developed from 2015.
The on-going AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire is the third AFCON for Mauritania.
After losing 0-1 and 2-3 in their first two games to Burkina Faso and Angola respectively, a determined Mauritania ensured Algeria did not escape. They won 1-0 on Tuesday to join the ranks of the giant killers in this year’s AFCON.
Mauritania will have their hands full in the round of 16, as they face the biggest revelation in African football now, the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde.
