The Most Bizarre Sending Off Ever?




I bet Steve Coppell must have loved this. Reading and Cameroon defender Andre Bikey takes a 20 yard run-up and pushes over one of the security guards who is helping the medical team who in turn are helping Rigobert Song, the Cameroon captain who is on the ground injured.

Can you imagine how Bikey's team mates feel, never mind how the player himself feels. There you are beating the hosts, Ghana, 1-0 in the Cup Of African Nations, it's the 90th minute of the semi final, there's only one match left in the tournament, the final, and you do this. In 2006 I described Zinedine Zidane's headbutt as bizarre but this must beat that.

The clip unfortunately doesn't show the defenders run-up, just the aftermath. I was watching this live on Eurosport and as soon as the match finished it was back to the studio in Britain. Gary Imlach the presenter turned to the two summarisers Terry Butcher and Stan Collymore and asked, "Do you think Andre Bikey had a traumatic experience as a child involving a man in a fluorescent yellow jacket?" Brilliant.

The British printed press coverage of this tournament has been nothing short of scandalous considering the number of British based players involved. That said those of us who have watched the games live on Eurosport and BBCi have witnessed a big change in the way the African nations play compared to say ten years ago. In fact it was only a couple of years ago on my World Cup 2006 blog that I likened African defending to that of kids in a primary school playground all chasing after the ball at the same time. This tournament we have witnessed nations who play with a defensive midfielder in front of the back four, the teams have proper tactics - this isn't meant to sound patronising and a relic of empire - they can defend. The two stars of this tournament should have been Samuel Etoo and Didier Droghba, well Etoo has had a poor tournament so far but Droghba has been excellent, however the two stars have been Alexander Song (Arsenal and Cameroon), who is also the nephew of the Cameroon captain Rigobert and Michael Essien, who played in the back four for the hosts Ghana.

We all know how good a player Michael 'The Beast' Essien is, he was outstanding at Germany 2006, the biggest smile in world football at the moment must be the one on Arsene Wenger's face. A team with a midfield of Fabregas, Flamini, Hleb and Rosicky can already afford to leave out a World Cup winner (Gilberto), it's quite possible that come Sunday night they may also be in the position of being able to leave out somebody who has the highest possible medal anybody can win in African nations competitions.