When April Fool’s Isn’t Funny

Call me an old grouch but I personally hate April 1st and the so called jokes that it brings with it. I think this stems from a day when I arrived at my elementary school in Menzah 7 (a Tunis suburb) only to find everyone telling me that I was in huge trouble with one of my teachers. They insisted I had disrespected her and would be suspended indefinitely. I was young and gullible so I took the news very badly. To my merit though, even at that tender age I had the initiative to follow up with the teacher in question and find out exactly what I had done.

I located her in the courtyard and asked her if I was really being punished. To my dismay she confirmed the foul news with these words “Oui, retourne a la maison!” Just as I was about to burst into tears I heard giggles behind me. When I turned around I found that I had been trailed by my entire class. I was perplexed by the grins on their faces. Why were they so happy about this? Aren’t they my friends? I thought I was having a twilight zone moment until they all shouted in unison: “Poisson d’Avril!” Dude, not funny. Turns out my teacher was in cahoots with my deceptively well organized classmates.

You may be asking yourself: “Rami what does this have to do with soccer?” Fair question and I’m happy to answer. Today two Carthage Eagle newsbits are circulating which upon initial viewing, caused serious concern. I logged onto Mosaique FM as I usually do to check out what was new in the world of Tunisian sports. The biggest headline was “Exclusif: Contre toute attente Lemerre resigne pour 5 ans!”

After remembering the date today, I had a good laugh about this one and the reactions to it. People were tearing their hair out over it. It didn’t take long for Mosaique to announce it was an April fool’s joke. The one that is more troubling to me, is one I found on Tunisie foot saying that the fall friendly between Tunisia and France has been cancelled by the Paris prefecture due to security concerns. This one is a little more ambiguous which is why it gives me pause. My gut instinct is its fake but I’m not 100% on it. Last year Tunisie foot announced Selim Benachour was signing with Sevilla. Now he plays in Koweit so go figure!

All I have to say is this. Stop playing with my news… and my emotions!