Tempers flay at Post-match press conference.

[Waffiman]

Waffiamn-That's what I'm talking bout.

I speak to and know a lot of Africans here in London. My bro, they are amazed at our pride and fierce Nationalism. We will not suffer fools gladly and we are always ready to take on all comers. You can see they want and like what we have, that is, if they are not the jealous ones.

I cannot understand the mentality of these people sometimes.

[realplayer]

Tunisians are VERY BAD sports men
At the end of the day, Morroco will beat them and what they have worked so hard to get by hook or by crook will end in total
Failure!

This is the first time a whole country will fall co low as not to play the national item of another country! These Arabs never even consider themselves Africans anyway!

And they want to host the World Cup!

Up South Africa!!!

[mke1010]

I have said it already if Tunisian anthem is ever played in Nigeria, I will be the first to line up to sign petition to have whoever is NFA chief fired for nonesense and alacrity.

[sarkin doya]

All was not well in Tunisia. Playing the wrong national anthem is
a disgrace but let us not compare the press conference to that.
Let us also not get too far ahead of ourselves and start
talking about colonial masters etc. Afterall, we wanted
Roger Lemerre to speak to the journalists in the language
of our colonial masters - a language which is now our
national language!

Waffi: English has no superior status over French. We were
in a french-speaking country. Why should the Nigerian
journalists ask CCC to speak Igbo?

Now if the Tunisian captain had started speaking Arabic we
would have a legitimate beef.

[Dodo]

A report said Badra did speak ARABIC during the french conference oops i meant press

[Waffiman]

All was not well in Tunisia. Playing the wrong national anthem is
a disgrace but let us not compare the press conference to that.
Let us also not get too far ahead of ourselves and start
talking about colonial masters etc. Afterall, we wanted
Roger Lemerre to speak to the journalists in the language
of our colonial masters - a language which is now our
national language!

Waffi: English has no superior status over French. We were
in a french-speaking country. Why should the Nigerian
journalists ask CCC to speak Igbo?

Now if the Tunisian captain had started speaking Arabic we
would have a legitimate beef.

No! I beg to disagree. Why? You do not seem to get the gist of the issue at hand.

We asked questions in English but they kept on replying in French. So we hit back by replying back in Ibo. For me, it was the perfect answer to their arrogance. They are hosting the ANC, so they must provide interpreters. Also, they could understand and speak English, in the spirit of co-operation I felt as host, they should be more accomodating given the difficulty at hand. But chose to be obtuse, so we hit back.

[so__so_scandalous]

tnx reuben! u know this guys got me pulling my hair...talking about "bad hosts." look at your own record of awfully hosting tournaments...u didn't even have the medals to give us after we bit you at the AAG last year!

abeg sharrap.

[so__so_scandalous]

Why can Nigeria never take a beating like men...u guys are always sore in defeat....look at Cameroon and take a page out of our book...plus I thought abache had made french one of nigeria's national languages?! so what was all the fuss?

Let Cameroon host a Chicken fight first, before you contribute on threads like this.

yeepaa.

[oyek]

Felarey and Waffiman, Ride on my brothers thats what i'm talking about. This Cameroonian chaps on this forum are bunch of goats who cannot defend themselves when the truth comes out.

My prayer now is for Morroco to destroy Tunisia come Saturday. I will be so happy.

[sarkin doya]

All was not well in Tunisia. Playing the wrong national anthem is
a disgrace but let us not compare the press conference to that.
Let us also not get too far ahead of ourselves and start
talking about colonial masters etc. Afterall, we wanted
Roger Lemerre to speak to the journalists in the language
of our colonial masters - a language which is now our
national language!

Waffi: English has no superior status over French. We were
in a french-speaking country. Why should the Nigerian
journalists ask CCC to speak Igbo?

Now if the Tunisian captain had started speaking Arabic we
would have a legitimate beef.

No! I beg to disagree. Why? You do not seem to get the gist of the issue at hand.

We asked questions in English but they kept on replying in French. So we hit back by replying back in Ibo. For me, it was the perfect answer to their arrogance. They are hosting the ANC, so they must provide interpreters. Also, they could understand and speak English, in the spirit of co-operation I felt as host, they should be more accomodating given the difficulty at hand. But chose to be obtuse, so we hit back.

My bro: if you lived in Canada you would see the picture that
we see here. This English/French wahala is a big thing.
One can call it arrogance. However, it is an attempt by
a minority to preserve their language.

I agree with you that the organizers should have had
translators as I believe both Eng/French are official
FIFA languages. However, I am not as sure as everyone
else that the national anthem messup and not having
translators was an intentional act to messup Nigeria.
It was poor planning on the part of the organizers and
poor planning is not confined to Tunisia alone -
as most of us here can attest.

Regardless of the above, we should not confuse the coach
and captain of the Tunisian team with the organizers.
They had a right to speak French - why force them to
speak English?

Elsewhere Ikwerreman mentioned that Hayatou spoke
in French and he walked out. I am surprised that no one
mentioned Nigeria's obligation at the press conference
to provide translation!

What we seem to forget time and again is that we
want to impose the will of majority on the minority.

Having said the above, if Lemerre and Badra really
did speak English capably it would have been in good
spirit for them to speak. As I don't know their fluency
in the language I can't say. But some people in public
eye will refuse to speak an alternate language unless
they have excellent command of that language - because
it may make them look bad. How often have you seen
a world leader who understands and has basic
ability to speak English, go through a translator in order
not to be embarassed.

[Damunk]

u didn't even have the medals to give us after we bit you at the AAG last year!

I did not see any biting on the field o!!

You this Grammar Police sef!

Make we see you for ythe R&R forum now!
You go get plenty work there!


daMunK

[Jimi]

tnx reuben! u know this guys got me pulling my hair...talking about "bad hosts." look at your own record of awfully hosting tournaments...u didn't even have the medals to give us after we bit you at the AAG last year!

Has Cameroon ever hosted the tourney? I think not..and Nigeria has hosted twice..now stop hating..Which cities in Cameroon you guys go take host am sef..?

[Jimi]

Oba-Obviously what you are saying is the most honorable way to behave. But most of the time nice guys finish last. Do you remember (I beleive it was Omokaro but my memory might have failed me, that deconstructed that ALgerian boy's knee cap in retaliation for what they did to one of our players, though he got a red card they never tried to hack down our boys again) It's hard to do the honorable thing when they do the dishonorable thing and win.

me sef i remember that one..na Omokaro wey wicked the guy like that..Did that guy ever play again??

[paj]

During the press conference after the Nigeria vs. Tunisia game, tempers were very high as Roger Lamerre and the Tunisian captain refused to reply to questions from Nigerian jouranlists in English. No translator was present. It was noted that both Lamerre and the Tunisian captain both understand and speak English.

This angered both the Nigerian journalists and CCC and Okocha. The journalists subsequently told Okocha and CCC to reply to their questions in Igbo.

This retaliation pissed Lamerre and the Tunisian captain off. They staged a walk-out followed by Okocha and CCC.

...what did Okocha say.."OTUNNEGI"?

Pa

[theYemster]

All was not well in Tunisia. Playing the wrong national anthem is
a disgrace but let us not compare the press conference to that.
Let us also not get too far ahead of ourselves and start
talking about colonial masters etc. Afterall, we wanted
Roger Lemerre to speak to the journalists in the language
of our colonial masters - a language which is now our
national language!

Waffi: English has no superior status over French. We were
in a french-speaking country. Why should the Nigerian
journalists ask CCC to speak Igbo?

Now if the Tunisian captain had started speaking Arabic we
would have a legitimate beef.

Nephew do you understand the requirements of hosting a championship?...I think not.

[Oba]

All was not well in Tunisia. Playing the wrong national anthem is
a disgrace but let us not compare the press conference to that.
Let us also not get too far ahead of ourselves and start
talking about colonial masters etc. Afterall, we wanted
Roger Lemerre to speak to the journalists in the language
of our colonial masters - a language which is now our
national language!

Waffi: English has no superior status over French. We were
in a french-speaking country. Why should the Nigerian
journalists ask CCC to speak Igbo?

Now if the Tunisian captain had started speaking Arabic we
would have a legitimate beef.

Nephew do you understand the requirements of hosting a championship?...I think not.

First, CAF has two official languages - English and French. If Nigeria committed the same offense, I would have been pissed. And yes, the Tunisian captain spoke in Arabic. Besides, when you know I don't speak French and I ask you a question in English, a language you totally comprehend, it is simply normal courtesy to reply in English.