Deaths overshadow African qualifiers

The weekend’s 2006 World Cup qualifiers were overshadowed by deaths in Liberia, Guinea and Togo.

In Conakry, three people died in a crush to get tickets for Guinea’s game with Morocco.

There was also crowd trouble at a number of other matches around the continent.

Another three were killed and eight more injured when fans panicked after a powercut in the stadium just minutes after the final whistle in Togo’s 1-0 win over Mali.

In Monrovia, there were two deaths as angry fans rioted after Liberia’s 3-0 defeated to Senegal.

There were also violent scenes in Benin after the home side lost 1-0 to the Ivory Coast and similarly in Brazzaville, following the Congo’s 3-2 defeat to Zambia.

In the last five years, more than 200 people have lost their lives at football grounds across Africa, as a combination of poor infrastructure combined with incompetent crowd control has taken its toll.