The centre of the world

On a big night for football, with the African Cup of Nations final taking place (on the equator), it is just a shame so few people were able to see it in the flesh.  The likes of Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa and Egypt were not present but it featured the two modern powerhouses of continent in the Ivory Coast and Ghana.  Yet only 12,000 watched this spectacle, of whom only a quarter were fans of either of the two sides, yet in this instance it was paratroopers, not administrators who constituted such a large swathe of the crowd (after violence in the course of home team Equatorial Guinea's semi-final defeat).  2,000 more people watched Portsmouth beat Hartlepool 1-0 in English League Two by comparison.  In League One, over 13,000 watched Preston defeat Coventry 1-0 and 15 and a half thousand observed Milton Keynes Dons draw 0-0 with Bristol City.  Only three games in the Championship drew less support and they were hosted by the traditionally smaller sides of Millwall, Wigan and Rotherham.  All Premier League games comfortably outpolled it.
The organisers set prices low and even distributed free tickets but even before the final, there was hardly a carnival atmosphere with Equatorial Guinea, one of the most repressive countries in Africa, a last-minute host with an odd geographical distinction between mainland and capital island.  Moreover, after the semi-final violence what local enthusiasm there was evaporated and state television was banned from screening the final for fear from the authorities of incitement.  The game itself was very much a re-run of the 2014 World Cup, with chances at a minimum and tension at a high.  Unlike the World Cup gala, it went to penalties, with Ivory Coast triumphing 9-8.  Penalties are always an unsatisfactory way to crown the best but it's a pity so few people seemed to care.