No way back as Togo fail to show up

TOGO HAVE been officially disqualified from the Africa Cup of Nations after the squad flew home on Sunday following the gun attack on their bus in Cabinda two days earlier.

“They are disqualified. This group (B) is a three-team tournament,” Confederation of African Football (CAF) co-ordinator Yaouba Amoa said yesterday.

Togo’s assistant coach, media officer and bus driver were killed and reserve goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale seriously wounded by separatists from the enclave of Cabinda in Friday’s attack.

Yesterday’s Group B match between Togo and Ghana had been scheduled as the second part of a doubleheader. Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast shared a 0-0 draw in the first game at the new Chazi Stadium in Cabinda.

Togo midfielder Thomas Dossevi described the CAF decision as ridiculous. “It would have been simple for us to come back and play on January 21st, I think Ghana would have agreed to that,” he said. “It is a serious and ridiculous decision. Everybody wanted us to be here and play the African Nations Cup.”

Togo left Angola on a chartered flight sent to collect them after the attack but had expressed the hope they might be able to return and compete at the tournament. Several players spoke of their willingness to play on but they were ordered home by Togo’s government. The CAF official said it would be impossible to change the tournament schedule.

Angola, meanwhile, said yesterday it had arrested two people suspected of taking part in the attack on the bus carrying the Togo national soccer team. It said it wanted its neighbours and France to clamp down on the rebels who have claimed responsibility for the attack in Cabinda, a heavily militarised oil-producing province geographically cut off from northern Angola.

Provincial prosecutor Antonio Nito said the two suspects belonged to the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) – the small remnant of a group that has been fighting for independence from Angola for over 30 years.

Friday’s attack took place shortly after the Togo team’s bus crossed into Cabinda from the Republic of Congo. Togo’s sports minister and several players had said they hoped the schedule could be changed to let them honour their dead colleagues by playing. But the Confederation of African Football was adamant yesterday that if Togo did not turn up to play their first match in Cabinda, they would forfeit their place.

The attack has acutely embarrassed the Angolan government, which had declared the FLEC dead and spent $1 billion preparing for the Nations Cup to showcase a gradual recovery from decades of civil war that only ended in 2002.

Antonio Bento Bembe, an ex-rebel who is now a minister in charge of Cabinda affairs and policy on the FLEC, said the government “will do all we can to finish them off”.