Some Un-African Cup Related News

With all the attention heavily focused on the African Cup in Ghana, it is easy to forget about various news items that are unrelated to the tournament. I thought I’d take a step back and give some airtime (or blogtime if you wanna get technical) to some other happenings in the world of Tunisian football:

Tijani Belaid Freed?

Infosfoot.org has posted an interview with the newly freed Tunisian international. After a nightmarish 25 days, Tijani is finally out after passing in front of the judge yesterday who gave him “2 mois avec sursis et une amande de 700 dinars” which translates literally to a suspension of two months and a 700 dinar fine. To be honest I’m kind of confused about the sentence. Mosaique FM says it’s a 2 month jail sentence with delay. I don’t really understand this as the Infofoot article says that he went back home to Paris following the interview. So will he be coming back to spend more time in prison? Sorry I’m not really sure about what this means, maybe someone who knows more about the Tunisian justice system can decode this and add their two cents to help clarify? All I know is I’m happy to see him joining his family. Once again, our thoughts go out to everyone that was hurt in this tragedy.

Coupe de Tunisie Draw Complete: A Tunis Derby Renewed

Here are the various matchups. You’ll notice at the very bottom that as fate would have it, there is a battle of the heavyweights scheduled. All the matches will take place on the 16th of March. The final before the final will undoubtedly be a compelling matchup, like it always is.

CA Bizertin – ES Metlaoui
CO Transport – Grombalia Sport
CS Msaken – AS Marsa
Club S. Sfaxien – LS Ksibet Sousse
CS Hammam Lif – JS Kairouan
CS Jebeniana – AS Djerba
Sfax R. Sport – Etoile S Sahel
EGS Gafsa – ES Beni Khaled
ES Fahs – Stade Tunisien
US Monastir – Hammamet FC
Stade S. Sfaxien – CO Sidi Bouzid
US Zarzis – Ahly K.Landalous
Espérance S. Zarzis – CS Makthar
Stade Gabésien – EM Mehdia
ES Hammam Sousse – US Ben Guerdane
Club Africain – Espérance de Tunis

Amir Akrout Training With Freiburg in Germany

The Stade Tunisien striker, Amir Akrout, is training with the second division Bundesliga club (currently 3rd in the standings) and a decision regarding his future will be made on the 31st of January which is the last day of the mercato. Leaving it kinda late aren’t they? Not sure how I feel about this as I wanted him to go to a first division team but I guess Freiburg isn’t that far off from earning a move up into the top flight. The good thing is that Freiburg has a history with Tunisian players as it is the former club of none other than Zoubeir Beya, Adel Sellimi, and Mehdi Ben Slimane. Akrout’s goalscoring abilities will only help in the quest to reach the next level of German football. It is still unclear whether the talented striker will be loaned or sold to the team.

Akrout Update

It’s official, Amir Akrout completes a transfer to Freiburg. He’s on loan for six months with a possibility to sign a contract afterwards. I guess it only took him one or two training sessions to prove his talent!

Alright that’s it for now. Do stay tuned for the preview of Tunisia vs. South Africa which will come later today.