footballer dies ahead of game

competition to determine who will represent African football at the 2012 London Olympics.
Israel-based midfielder Patrick Doeplah was discovered dead of suspected cardiac arrest after arriving in Monrovia this week to prepare for a qualifier against Ivory Coast in Accra.
According to a national football association official, Doeplah appeared happy and healthy before spending the night at the house of a friend because hotel accommodation for the national Under-23 squad was not yet available.
“This is a serious blow because Patrick was a rising star. We will use his tragic death as a motivation to stage a good match against Ivory Coast in Ghana,” vowed national association media director Henry Flomo.
Liberia were one of three qualifiers for the first round who had to play a preliminary tie and they pipped Sierra Leone on penalties in a West Africa derby following 1-1 stalemates in Freetown and Monrovia.
Ivory Coast, who reached the quarter-finals in Beijing three years ago at their first Olympics appearance, should have hosted the Liberians but bloody post-presidential election unrest caused the switch to Ghana.
Egypt (10 qualifications), Ghana, Nigeria and Morocco (six each) boast the most successful Olympic football records on the continent and all have home advantage in the first-leg schedule.
Botswana face Egypt still stung by a five-goal home drubbing from South Africa in a warm-up, preliminary qualifiers Sudan meet Ghana, Mozambique confront Morocco and Equatorial Guinea play Nigeria.
The Nigerians defeated Ivory Coast en route to the 2008 final which they lost 1-0 to Argentina and collected silver medals after striking gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Cameroon followed Nigeria to the top of the podium four years later in Sydney following a shootout with Spain and a home match with Tanzania starts their challenge for a fourth appearance at the Games.
South African officials are in the dark about their home game against Libya with repeated calls to the Tripoli HQ of their opponents going unanswered in a country engulfed by conflict between pro- and anti-Moummar Gaddafi.
After a couple of knockout rounds, one of the eight survivors will host a tournament from which the top three finishers secure invites to London and the fourth-place team goes into a play-off against Asian opponents. – AFP.