Hot Corner | African soccer forgets to play with heart

Just when you thought the world of African soccer couldn’t get any more backwards, the game’s main governing body had to chime in.

Instead of just allowing the world—or at least the three percent of us that care—to enjoy the culmination of the Africa Cup of Nations, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) had to turn the attention squarely on itself this week by announcing a two-tournament ban for Togo.

Several days before the tournament started in Angola, the Togo team bus was machine-gunned by paramilitary forces operating in the northern region near Cabinda, the site of their Group B games. An assistant coach, a team spokesperson, and the bus driver were killed and two players were wounded in the attack, which lasted for a half hour until Angolan military arrived to fight off the insurgents.

After several days of uncertainty, reports surfaced that the Sparrow Hawks would return home and not take part in the tournament. The players then made a complete U-turn, unanimously deciding to play in memory of the deceased, before finally being called back home by Togolese Prime Minister Gilbert Huongbo.

Apparently it was this final act, the sinister intervention of Huongbo, that was judged to be the most atrocious of the events that took place and warranted the penalty handed down by CAF to bar Togo from the next two tournaments, as well as imposing a fine of $50,000 on the Togolese Football Federation (FTF).

The actions of Huongbo and his country violated Article 78 of the CAF’s regulations for the Cup of Nations, which states: “A forfeit notified less than twenty days before the start or during the final competition, shall entail in addition of the forfeit of the entry fee, a maximum fine stipulated by the regulations as well as the suspension of the concerned national association for the following two editions of the African Cup of Nations.”

The underlying text to all this is the CAF’s indignation at the Togolese government’s interference in their affairs. Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert in African politics by any stretch of the imagination. I only know the locations of the respective countries thanks to Sporcle.com, but a little research shows limited political contact, a different colonial lineage (Togo was a French colony, Angola Portuguese), and few tribal connections. The terrorist group responsible, the Front for the Liberation for the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), probably had no previous issues with Togo, only targeting them as foreigners.

Let’s take a look at the injustice and sanction scorecard.

Angola, who can’t control the separatist forces in its own country, gets to continue to host the tournament with little to no public sanction or official outcry, reaping the benefits of the influx of tourists and subsequent bump to the economy.

Togo, whose government elected not to have its players participate in the tournament at which they were greeted with gunfire and the death of two members of their envoy, is fined and banned thanks to a by-law that provides no recourse for the possibility of the host country’s impotence in controlling its own anarchy. I wonder if the CAF at least helped pay for the funerals.

It’s such a ludicrous situation that I can’t believe anyone, much less a governing body with CAF’s power, would act so heartlessly and without even the most basic modicum of discretion.

This is the equivalent of the school board in the Jefferson County Public School District fining a parent for keeping his or her child at home the Monday after the Columbine shooting.

The FTF is launching an appeal, but whatever the result, the action by the CAF will compound an already tumultuous and deadly tournament. It’s yet another blemish on the record of African football, and an incident that casts a dangerous shadow on the World Cup Finals in South Africa in just over four months.