Posted in News on Feb 05, 2010.
The Togo national team was recalled by their government following a violent attack just before the start of the tournament in Angola. Their subsequent request to join the tournament at a later stage, to allow them to mourn and bury their colleagues, was controversially turned down by the CAF, who later decided to ban Togo from participating in the next two African Cup of Nations tournaments.
“The treatment meted out to Togo by the insensitive and cruel Confederation of African Football is indeed a lamentable exposé of the organisation,” wrote ‘Captain Chincha’ in his column on Friday morning.
“While a lot of condemnation has been expressed on the callousness of the attackers, we should not look any further but question the judgment of the CAF immediately after the drama and their subsequent two-year suspension of the Togolese nation from continental competition.”
“In tapping my African roots, failure to grant Togo an opportunity to mourn its deceased and the insistence that it honours the competition while reeling from the shock was serious display of arrogance.
I believe it could have been human to at least allow Togo the benefit of participating after three days of mourning and burials, considering the expensive and dramatic route it took to qualify for the African spectacle,” said Chincha.