Togo, not Terry, is real story
Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments
While the British football and news media have gone into meltdown over England captain John Terry’s alleged dalliances with a lingerie model, a truly outrageous football story is yet to fire their imagination.
Page after page of newsprint and hour upon interminable hour of airtime have pored over Terry’s behaviour and spewed out moral indignation, yet you have to look a little harder to find a story which actually warrants such disgust.
Almost a month ago two members of the Togo national team delegation were killed in a gun ambush on their team bus, two days before the start of the African Cup of Nations in Angola.
With players traumatised and shell-shocked at their appalling experience, the Togolese Government finally recalled the squad to return home for three days of national mourning.
A dignified and correct response to an unimaginable incident. Yet not it seems a reaction mirrored by the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
Matters came to a head on Saturday when Caf with breathtaking insensitivity and arrogance banned Togo from the next two African Cup of Nations and fined them $50,000 for what they perceived as Governmental interference.
This is a misjudgement of spectacular proportions by Caf. We should not be too surprised as the federation hardly covered themselves in glory in the aftermath of the attack, exerting mild pressure on Togo to honour a commitment to their showpiece tournament.
Equally depressing has been FIFA’s failure to react. Four days after the judgement they had still to confirm whether they would endorse the ban or make any comment at all.
The world’s governing body will be loathe to interfere in the matters of a member association, but in such extraordinary circumstances, you would have hoped for a little better. Even a little humanity and compassion.
Caf’s apparently blasé attitude to these murders marks a line which football has been threatening to cross for some time. It is insult heaped upon genuine tragedy and trauma.
With a furious Togo government threatening legal action, their Interior Minister Pascal Bodjona summed up the situation: “This is a surprise decision and it means that people (Caf) have no consideration for the lives of other human beings. This is insulting to the family of those who lost their lives and those traumatised because of the attack.”
Togo’s French coach, Hubert Velud, added his astonishment and was equally eloquent in asking whether Fifa president Sepp Blatter and Uefa chief Michel Platini would support the ban.
“I am curious to know if Blatter and Platini will endorse this decision. If they let this go, it is the gateway to completely dysfunctional football.”
Football plays a huge role in many people’s lives and is an important cultural tool in the world we live in, but it is not a matter of life and death.
As football fans, and more importantly human beings, we have perspective to put aside our debate over the latest in a lengthening line of tawdry stories surrounding Premier League stars and get behind our football family.
Chris Harby
Tags: Caf > Emannuel Adebayor > Fifia > Hubert Velud > John Terry > Michel Platini > premier league > Sepp Blatter > Togo national team
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