Football returns after deadly hiatus in Ivory Coast

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With deep wounds yet to be healed and houses yet to be rebuilt, Ivorians are striving to gather the pieces of their lives and foster hope for a new dawn two months after the end of a five-month violent post election crisis that claimed 3,000 lives, with many of those dead yet to be buried.

Like nearly every other human activity in the West African nation, football was also grounded during the fierce fighting, with players and coaches fleeing their camps and homes for cover. Fans also, dared not step out for soccer fun or switch on TV to follow a game, when they had been condemned to lay face down for hours or days deep in their rooms to avoid stray bullets and aimless missiles unleashed by foolhardy combatants.

With the silencing of guns marking the end of violence and the beginning of peace, normalcy gradually returned with businesses and people taking their usual places in regular society, including football – surprisingly considered as one of the barometers to measure the amount of stability the new administration has been able to mould out of the debris heaped up by the rain of bullets.

After months of consequential delay, the domestic league launched its 2011 season two weeks ago, with 14 clubs heading for match day two this weekend, not forgetting the augmenting numbers of fans now accompanying them to stadiums and training grounds.

Back on the terraces | Colorful Ivorian fans are once again enjoying the beautiful game

Cote D’Ivoire is back, is the new media slogan connoting the pacy recovery from the time and resources wasted by politics. Football too is back as well, as youngsters donning colours of different club sides could once again been seen weekends gravitating towards sport arenas to have fun.

The greatest sign of the return of football in the country was the nationwide jubilation after the Elephants qualified for the 2012 African Cup of Nations last weekend by crushing the Squirrels of Benin 6-2.

Friends hugged each other; enemies bumped fists and shared beer. The orange, white, and green national flag floated higher than any known sentiment of hate or revenge, and seemingly wrapped together one people long athirst of unity and love but derailed to death and destruction by a game that had no rules, no fair play, and no time frame. But football is back to set the record straight!

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