Bamako - The African Nations Cup was plunged into controversy on Thursday night after a member of Cameroon's coaching staff was amazingly arrested by riot police at the March 26 Stadium.
The extraordinary flare-up happened when Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer and goalkeeping assistant Thomas Nkono stepped onto the pitch some 90 minutes before kick-off in their side's semifinal with host nation Mali.
The two Cameroon coaches had only ventured a few feet onto the playing surface when around 10 riot police sprinted onto the pitch and began jostling Nkono.
When the tracksuited coach resisted more riot police sprinted to their side, knocking former international Nkono onto the ground and dragging him onto the running track adjacent to the pitch.
A disgusted Schafer implored journalists and photographers to record the furore just as his assistant was handcuffed and led away down the players tunnel, at one point with his tracksuit trousers pulled around his ankles.
Later a member of the police ran back onto the pitch and appeared to retrieve an object from the ground where Schafer and his assistant had been standing, to roars of applause from fans inside the stadium.
Local journalists speculated the object was a black-magic charm aimed at helping Cameroon's cause, although neither police nor tournament officials were immediately available for comment.
Cameroon's Minister of Sport, Bidoung Mpkatt, who is travelling with the team looked visibly shaken by the affair, but sought to play down the incident when questioned by the press.
"I hope it's just a minor incident, I hope it was an individual error on the part of the policemen involved," he said.
"But if it's something more than that we will take appropriate action," he added without elaborating.
"If it's an attempt at intimidation it will not work," said Mpkatt, adding that he believed a busload of Cameroon supporters had been refused entry to the Stadium. He brushed off the theory that Nkono had been attempting to leave a black-magic charm. "Lucky charms don't play football. The truth is on the pitch," he said.
At the last African Nations Cup in 2000 a controversy erupted in the quarterfinal match between Nigeria and Senegal over the supposed use of witchcraft.
With Senegal leading 1-0 with only minutes left, a member of the Nigerian delegation sprinted onto the pitch and shimmied past several players before snatching an object from the Senegalese goal.
The official was later banned by the Confederation for African Football but revered as a hero in Nigeria for neutralising what many believed was a powerful charm placed in the Senegalese goal to prevent the Nigerians from scoring. - Sapa-AFP