A MADAGASCAN OWN GOAL.

With the FA Trophy 1st Qualifying round being played this weekend, I thought another cup tie would entertain us, before the result start flowing.

On October 31st 2002, Stade Olympique de L'Emyrne Antananarivo (SOE) were a club with high hopes of making a name for themselves! The club won the Madagascan League title in 2001 and advanced into the second round of the African Champions League. They beat Olympique de Moka of Mauritius in an "island derby" preliminary tie, twice postponed due to political unrest and then beat Petro Atletico of Angola in the first round on penalties-there was no home leg for SOE due to unrest still. Eventually the team lost out to a Mozambique team but intended to retain their home title.

There was a round robin play off between the top four clubs and this took place over 11 days.
SOE needed to win their penultimate match to have any chance of pipping ASAdema (local rivals) but were held to a 2-2 draw against another club, Domoina Soavina Atsimondrano (DSA), as the referee allowed a very late controversial penalty.

So when SOE faced Adema next and an early decison went against them, their manager Ratsimandresy Ratsarazaka, already persecuted, ordered his team to score own goals in protest.
They did, 149 of them.

Rat was suspended from football for three years, four of his players were suspended until the end of the season and SOE didn't win much that year apart from amusement.
By the way, the other club in the 4 way play off was US Ambohidratrimo, a commentator's nightmare.