This is interesting:

...the mix of soccer and politics can get ugly...In 2000 Gen. Robert Guei, who had just engineered [Ivory Coast's] first military coup, held the national team in detention for two days as punishment for being knocked out of the African Nations Cup in the first round. He stripped the players of their passports and cell phones, publicly denounced them, and suggested they should learn some barracks discipline. "You should have spared us the shame," he said.