Belts and International Breaks are a Bad Combination

By: Bob | October 15th, 2007

When your allegiances are with a particular football club, you often spend international breaks praying that none of your players is injured while they represent their country. At best you want your guys getting in a little run without doing damage to their bodies. You also hope the players who aren’t playing for their national teams stay out of trouble and out of the headlines. More than anything else, you hope that they stay away from belts.

During the African Cup of Nations tilt between Togo and Mali this past weekend things got a little out of hand. A pitch invasion at the end of the match saw fans attacking players, players attacking fans, and Sevilla fans holding their breath. That’s because Frederic Kanoute happens to play for Mali and he happened to be on the receiving end of the attack.

According to the reports, Kanoute had to receive stitches after he was beaten by a fan wielding a belt. He got off easy compared to Stoke City’s Mahamadou Sidibe, who had to have surgery after suffering a knife wound to his arm.

Mali coach Jean Francois Jodar told the French newspaper L’Equipe at the weekend: “It was like a battle field. The players had to seek safety in the change room and there was blood everywhere.”

Mali Football federation president Salif Keita added 15 supporters were injured after being attacked at the end of the match. Togo reports said several were hospitalised in Lome.

And as far as I can tell there is no video of this madness. Talk about an injustice. If you can track down the video and send me a link I will talk to the Nobel committee about your efforts.

Meanwhile, in an incident involving the use of an unrelated belt, Napoli striker Enzeguiel Lavezzi is in hot water after being involved in a road rage accident in which his girlfriend ended up taking off her belt and whipping one of the people involved in the incident.

International breaks are scary times. Hang on to your belts for just a few more days, my friends.