The Fiver | Carlos Queiroz and Egypt’s declaration of war on Afcon officialdom

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In the lead-up to Thursday night’s Afcon semi-final between Cameroon and Egypt, a minor exchange of views broke out between Samuel Eto’o and Carlos Queiroz. Eto’o, formerly Cameroon’s star striker and now president of their federation, referred to the upcoming match as a “war”, causing Egypt coach Queiroz to respond philosophically. “Football is not about war,” he insisted. “Football is about celebration, it’s about joy, it’s about happiness.” And so the moment those words left his lips, it instantly became inevitable that Queiroz would spend the duration of the game on a rolling boil, a bain-marie of belligerence whose bellicosity would make Vladimir Putin sound like a member of the Beatles in 1967.

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