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Little Plastic Men
Proof that the Zaire team had really made it onto the world stage lay in the fact that Subbuteo table-top football game manufacturers, Waddingtons, brought out a Leopards team (catalogue no: 176) especially for the 1974 finals.
In 1974,Zaire became the first sub-Saharan African nation to play in the World Cup Finals. Their erratic performances during the tournament in West Germany, however, left the reputation of African football in tatters. Calamitous defending and goalkeeping, a seeming lack of knowledge of the rules of the game, pay disputes and a Government intervening with team selection led to one of the most disastrous campaigns in World Cup Finals history.
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