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Bored African President May Have Ordered Cup Final to Penalties...in the 63rd minute.

The Mauritanian president may have order a match to penalties in the 63rd minute because he was bored.

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File this one under Weird Soccer Happenings: Over the weekend, FC Tevragh-Zeina and ACS Ksar, two teams in Mauritania, met in that nation's Super Cup final. (For all you geography majors, Mauritania is a West African country south of Morocco and west of Mali.) Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was in attendance, naturally. But he wasn't impressed by what he saw. With the match tied at 1-1 in the 63rd minute, Abdel Aziz is alleged to have said something to the effect of "enough is enough," or "let's get this shit over with." The game was halted, allegedly, and the two teams went straight to penalties.

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If you weren't paying attention, this is all alleged to have taken place. That's because after widespread dismay both inside and outside Mauritania, Abdel Aziz denied any wrongdoing. The nation's football association president, a man named Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane, then wrote a statement defending Abdel Aziz.

"I deny in the strongest terms the intervention of the President of the Republic," the statement reads, as quoted by Gazetta. "The decision was made due to organizational issues in accordance with the presidents and the coaches of the two teams."

All of this, of course, is amazing. It's amazing that a president would get bored and order penalties. It's also amazing that there is apparently so little evidence to refute this claim that the FA had to resort to a written statement. Such a response always has a way of casting doubt on whoever is responding. So there's reason to wonder. And anyway, I get the impression Abdel Aziz isn't a dude to be trifled with. He's led two (2) coups against former Mauritanian governments, and in 2012 he was shot in an assassination attempt. If he says take it to penalties, you take it to penalties.

Tevragh Zeina won the shootout.

(H/T Gazetta)