When Amir Abdou took up his position as Comoros national coach in 2014, he didn’t find much to do with. But at least he found the Comoros, the group of islands on the east coast of Africa from which his ancestors had once set out for France. But otherwise not very many people had ever heard of – until the Comoros qualified for the Africa Cup for the first time in 2021. A country with 850,000 inhabitants in nowhere managed to qualify what South Africa failed to do despite about 50 times as many inhabitants. A little sensation.
Since then, the Comoros have been something like the African counterpart of the Faroe Islands in terms of football; the archipelago has enjoyed a legendary reputation since beating Austria 1-0 in 1990 qualifying for the European Championship. It wasn’t enough for the tournament itself, which is why Faroe Islands are now in a way overshadowed by the Comoros.
They now have to explain who they are and where they come from. Coach Abdou is used to the questions, his players wanted to know a lot about him before they joined the team. “When you’re a small country that comes up with a project for these players, it’s very difficult to get them to say: I want to come to Comoros when we don’t know what security we can offer,” said he the news channel CNN.
Most of the team that is now playing for the championship in Cameroon were born in Europe like Coach Abdou. The coach is from Marseille, where between 100,000 and 200,000 people of Comorian descent have settled, so many that the region is also considered the fifth island of the Comoros.
Coach Abdou collects his players in Europe’s lower leagues
The four main islands of the archipelago were first settled by Asians, Africans, Arabs and Madagascans, the French came last and made them their colony. What interested them: the strategically favorable location on the trade route to Asia. And what turned the Comoros into a perfume island: the extracts from the ylang-ylang plant, which can also be found in Chanel No. 5 find. The profits from exports remained in France, and little was invested in the country’s infrastructure.
In 1974 the French asked the islanders how things should go on, whether they wanted to remain part of France or prefer to stay independent. Three of the four islands voted for their own state, only the small Mayotte did not want to break up, today it belongs to the EU as the 101st department of France. The residents do not regret the decision, the standard of living and health care are so much better on Mayotte that every year thousands of Comoros make their way to the neighboring island to work there or to come to Europe somehow.
Comoros coach Amir Abdou (right) first had to do some persuasive work in order to win players for the national team.
(Photo: Chris Omollo / Shengolpixs / Imago)
Coach Abdou also gathered his team there, mostly in the lower classes and with smaller clubs. One of the most famous players is Saïd Bakari, who plays for RKC Waalwijk in the Dutch second division.
“We are not afraid of anyone,” says Bakari. “We’re here at this tournament, so we’re good too.” They weren’t bad in the first game against Gabon, but lost 1-0. It is not an easy group that the Comoros have found themselves in, on Friday they will face Morocco, on Tuesday they will face Ghana, both of which are favorites to win the tournament.
When the national team comes to the islands, “the country stops 15 days in advance”
For many years the Comoros were at the bottom of the Fifa world rankings, making it all the way down to 198th place. In addition to coach Abdou and his clear concept, the rise is due to Fifa’s funding. Under Fifa boss Sepp Blatter it had become common practice that every association, no matter how small and obscure, was given a few million dollars and then voted grateful for Blatter. In the Comoros they have actually improved the infrastructure of the stadiums and set up a training center with the 1.5 million euros from Fifa every year, according to Deutsche Welle. In the past few years there has been steady progress, much to the delight of the population. When the national team comes to the islands, “the country stops 15 days in advance,” said coach Abdou. “The country pauses and the people live from the team.”
Soccer doesn’t unite so many other countries. While the Comoros dominated the FIFA table from below for a long time, they were at the top of another ranking: Probably no other nation has seen so many military coups, more than 20 are said to have been since independence.
The first were led by French mercenaries, because France had given the Comoros formal independence but did not want to separate completely. Later there were repeated disputes between the two smaller islands Anjouan and Mohéli and the much larger Grande Comore. It was about power and influence and the distribution of resources. The two little ones felt so disadvantaged that they wanted to break away from the Comoros state in 1997 and even asked Anjouan to become part of France.
The instability did not exactly mean that much could develop in the Comoros. The neighbors in the Seychelles have converted their island into a lucrative tourist area, there are many beautiful beaches and potential on the Comoros, but few visitors. Corona has not exactly made the situation any easier, the islands are almost impossible to reach, which is why no fans were able to travel to Cameroon for the first Africa Cup. The team says it doesn’t matter, they still do their best.
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