The Forgotten Game: Why the AFCON third-place playoff lacks meaning
Coach Toni Conceicao gathered his disappointed lions, motivating them for one last push against Burkina Faso in the match nobody wanted.
"Win it for the people!" he implored, trying to inject meaning into what was essentially a meaningless encounter.
The players dragged their weary bodies back to the hotel, the noise of celebration carrying from the winners’ camp next door.
Cameroon’s semi-final hero Vincent Aboubakar sat solemnly icing his legs. At 30, he knew this was likely his AFCON swansong. The strikers' trophy hopes had been crushed, but now he had to lift himself for a game that would be forgotten as soon as the real final was played.
"Why do we put ourselves through this?" sighed Aboubakar to his teammate.
"The third-place match decides nothing. Our tournament ended last night as far as I'm concerned." His teammate could only nod glumly in agreement.
Similar scenes were unfolding in the Burkina Faso camp. Their breakthrough run to the semi-finals had inspired a nation, but like Cameroon, to lose at the final hurdle was heart-breaking. Coach Kamou Malo now had to pick them up again for the third-place charade.
"It's a nonsense game," growled Malo. "But we must retain our pride for Burkina Faso." In truth, his players would rather wallow in self-pity than engage in a pointless fixture.
And so, on a damp field two days later, both sides sleepwalked through a dreary 90 minutes. The fans had mostly stayed away, aggregate attendance was under 15,000 in a 60,000-capacity stadium. Neither team celebrated their goals with vigour, each step heavy with hearts longing to be home.
After Cameroon trudged off winners, the lack of extreme reaction said it all. After a few minutes of celebrating with Andre Onana, the penalty hero, it went quiet.
There were no medals, no podiums, just a cursory handshake before both teams disappeared down the tunnel, the Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel echoing around the near-empty arena. If any match encapsulated the futility of the third-place playoff, this was it.
Two years later, the sentiments feel and look the same ahead of the third-place play-off between South Africa and DR Congo. South Africa coach Sebastien Desabre came across as a man in deep thought with his face buried into his arms in the early minutes of the press conference. He was pensive, perhaps wondering if his team could have defended the cross that led to Sebastien Haller’s winner better.
DR Congo has won the trophy twice and had their eyes on a third. Their legends played a key role in their triumph 50 years ago and visited the camp of the Leopards in Abidjan to inspire them ahead of the semi-final. Many may call this a fairytale run for the 2015 AFCON bronze medalists, but within the team, they feel this was a rare opportunity not to just make history but also to make the people of DR Congo happy amid the conflicts in the eastern part of the country.
Before Desabre, Hugo Broos had echoed his thoughts on the third-place match.
"If you ask my advice, this game should not be played. The most important thing in a tournament like this is the winner. If you are third or fourth tomorrow, for me it's exactly the same because this is only for statistics."
"Number one is important, number one they will always remember," the 71-year-old coach said.
For South Africa, it’ll be more difficult mentally to bounce back considering they lost their semi-final against Nigeria on penalties.
The third-place match feels like a game that favours whoever recovers better after their semi-final loss.
In the 2014 World Cup, Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal shared the thoughts of Broos ahead of the third-place playoff against Brazil.
“I think that this match should never be played. I have been saying this for the past 10 years. We will just have to play the game, but it is unfair. We will have one day less to recover and that’s not fair play. The worst thing is, I believe, there is a chance that you lose twice in a row in a tournament in which you’ve played so marvellously well. You go home as a loser because possibly you’ve lost the last two matches,” he told reporters.
So why does the AFCON persist with this outdated tradition that nobody really wants?
Continental competitions like the Euros, Gold Cup, and Asia Cup don’t play a third-place play-off game. Since 2015, Asian Cup organisers opted to award a third place to the losing semi-finalist with a better record. Their players enjoyed a welcome extra day of rest.
Surely AFCON should follow suit and abolish the unwanted third-place playoff? Cameroon and Burkina Faso's time would have been better spent mentally recovering from their semi-final losses. Their federations would save on travel costs and logistics also and with only a two-day turnaround to the final, an extra rest day for the finalists would improve the showpiece event.
With most of the crowd - and global media - only interested in the winner, ending third-place playoffs would allow AFCON to build excitement solely around the final. And the winning team could bask in the tournament's undivided attention during their victory laps and medal ceremonies.
Some may argue the third-place match gives teams one last chance at AFCON glory. Also, there is a monetary benefit to federations because of the extra game that is considered when selling TV rights.
But as Cameroon and Burkina Faso showed, it's a game very few care about winning. Broos and Desabre have already stated that they're going to allow fringing players to get a feel of the tournament. But how long can organizers persist with a fixture that brings minimal joy to everyone involved?
AFCON has prospered into an enthralling festival of African football. But there's no doubt its prestige would be enhanced even further by retiring the anachronistic third-place match forever.
Let the sound of silence ring loud in that blank space in the schedule, as anticipation builds towards a final that truly captivates the continent. After all, if no one remembers who finished second, how much more third?
