BY: Omar Jatta
The match commentator who did the commentary on BeIN Sport TV on Friday between Mauritania and The Gambia, Adel Khalou has accused the Mauritanian Football Federation FFRIM of resorting to the naturalisation of as many Senegalese nationals to bolster the Mauritanian team.
However, the Algerian was forced to back-track and withdrew his ill informed comments after admitting he got it all wrong, as he was not in full understanding of the diverse nature of the Mauritanian society, where you have so many other black ethnicities alongside the Arabs.
The comments provoked a wave of indignation amongst the Mauritanians, prompting Adel Khalou to apologise to them, citing he has been misled by a Mauritanian friend “apparently not aware of the development of football in the country,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page: Khalou. Apparently he was unaware that Mauritania is rich in it’s Arab and African diversity.
Mauritania’s recent rise from the doldrums of football has attracted a sizeable degree of publicity and questions from commentators around the continent and beyond, trying to digest the sudden change of footballing terrain for the North Africans.
There was a time, not even that long ago when the idea of a Mauritanian national football team was little more than a myth and between 2009 and 2011, the national side played just one match – a friendly against Palestine which ended in a goalless draw – and at that time tumbled to 206th on the FIFA rankings.
But when all hopes were lost and the Mourabitounes facing confinement to the historic archives of the game, salvation somehow came through intervention of FFRIM chairman, Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane alongside a more reputable coach, former French midfielder Corentin Martins, who understands how to work within the limits of the resources at his disposal.
Having opted out of the qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and playing no games at all in 2009 or 2011, Mauritania had just three Ranking points to their name, with only Bhutan, San Marino and Turks and Caicos Islands sitting below them.
Anxious to halt the slide, FFRIM chairman Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane, who took on the job in 2011, came up with a plan designed to push the national side back up to its highest ever ranking of 85th, a benchmark achieved in 1995.
Four years later, they have climbed over 100 places up on the Coca Cola FIFA World ranking table, 58 places ahead of their most recent opponents, The Gambia, whom they’ve beaten in the first leg of the two-legged AFCON 2017 qualifiers at the Olympic Stadium in Nouakchott last Friday, with the second leg coming tomorrow at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.
The Mourabitounes can also count among their recent conquests, a former continental champion, South Africa, whom they beat 3 – 1 at home last September.The Mauritanian side are inexperienced on the big stage and in life, with eight of their last 12 call-ups being 25 or younger, including promising striker Boubacar Bagili and young defender Aly Abeid.
Some of them play in amateur and lower leagues in France, a sprinkling have found deals in Algeria and Morocco but they bulk of them are based at home, where they remain relatively unknown to the rest of the continent, nevermind the world. But it is exactly that element of surprise that they are using to their advantage in their bid to close the skills gap Martins admits they have.
“You have to give 200 percent every time you go out on the pitch — 100 percent isn’t enough. We have very little room for maneuver, so to win matches it’s indispensable to be at our best. We’re not Argentina or Germany, so there are always quite a few things to rectify,” said Martins after the win over South Africa.
“Our goal now is to experience more moments like that,” he added.
“But, for that to happen, we have to stop dreaming about that game. We need to continue progressing. What’s important is for that win to give our players confidence.
Martin’s team are now sitting comfortably in second place on the African Cup qualifying table in group M, just a point behind group leaders Cameroon on 6 points and could be on the verge of making history if they can see off The Gambia and get a result against South Africa.
They were unlucky having already made it through to the second round of 2018 World Cup qualifiers, after seeing off debutants South Sudan, who held them to a goalless draw in the first leg, but a 4-1 saw them came a step close to Russia 2018 but we’re undone by Tunisia, who proved to be too tough a task in the second round as they exited the tournament 4-2 on aggregate after the two legs.
This recent triumphs are not made possible without the vision of their current Football Federation chairman Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane, who took over the role towards the end of Mourabitone’s absence from the world stage, in 2011. His first action was to organise more matches for the national side, even if at first the results were unsuccessful
In 2013, Mauritania played three matches and won two, both against Liberia. In 2013, they played six games and beat Senegal and Canada. In 2014, the played 11 games, which including a participation in the 2015 ANC qualifiers. They won two matches in that qualification process, against Mauritius and Equatorial Guinea, which was not enough to earn a place in the tournament but was enough to show they meant business. Last year, they played eight matches and have won half of them. Which show the extent of their progress.
“The results are starting to come, which proves that we’re on the right track,” Cheikhani Ould Maouloud, Mauritania’s director of football told FIFA.com in August.
“The strategy is to play international matches on the days allocated by FIFA and we’re sticking to it. We’ve achieved our best ranking since 2008 and our aim now is to make it into the top 100.” Which by the look of things won’t be long before they can tick that box.
