Criminally moronic CAF add insult to injury... and death

There've been many reasons that Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou should be sacked. The quality of football on the continent has improved dramatically since the Cameroonian took over way back in 1988. He re-shaped the continent's premier club tournament into a more high profile African Champions League. The international African Nations Cup has dramatically gained in prestige and importance in the last two decades.

But under Hayatou's reign, CAF has spectacularly failed to capitalized on the increased interest in the Champions League and especially the Nations' Cup. The tournaments are almost impossible to find on television anywhere.

Despite intense interest outside the continent, the Nations Cup is only available in most countries via an expensive online scheme. I have no idea if the Champions League is available at all.

CAF has made some egregious decisions in awarding the Nations' Cup. Tournaments, such as the 2008 edition in Ghana, are often plagued by organizational difficulties. The continental body inexplicably awarded the 2012 Nations' Cup jointly to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, two of the most corrupt countries in the world, the latter being closed and repressive on a par with North Korea or Burma.

The awarding of the current year's tournament to Angola was less egregious, except for CAF allowing matches to be held in the unstable province of Cabinda, a decision which had deadly consequences.

A bus carrying the Togolese national team was attacked by Cabindan rebels as it crossed the border from Congo-Brazzaville into Cabinda, where it was playing first round matches. Three members of the Togolese entourage were killed and one of its goalkeepers seriously injured in the attack; naturally the other members of the team were badly shaken.

CAF and Angola's dictatorship initially tried the Kremlin approach, but denying that any attack took place at all. It was just a ruptured tire, they said. Because noise from a blown tire lasts 20 minutes.

Finally, the "organizers" admitted that the gun attack took place by placed blame squarely on the shoulders of the Togolese. They said Togo should've flown to the Angolan capital Luanda and then to Cabinda, rather than go overland. They gave no explanation of why they allowed tournament matches to be held in a place that was not safe to drive in.

After some discussion, the Togolese government ordered its shell-shocked players to come home, since the criminally negligent authorities in Angola and CAF quite obviously couldn't guarantee anyone's security.

Rather than an apology for forcing players to play in a war-afflicted province or showing understanding toward witnesses to a massacre, CAF has incomprehensibly suspended Togo from the next two Nations' Cups.

CAF is complicit via negligence in the deaths of the three members of Togo's delegation. And yet it's Togo who is punished for being the only ones who gave a damn about their players' safety. Or maybe Togo's fault is having been stupid enough to trust the judgment of the morons at CAF and the Angolan dictatorship's spinmeisters.

For this whole series of criminal stupidity, Issa Hayatou and the entire CAF executive committee should be sacked... to say nothing of lifting the ban of the victims of this whole affair, the Togolese team.

African Nations' Cup must be withdrawn from Cabinda

As reported here yesterday, militants in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda attacked a bus carrying the Togolese national soccer team, killing the bus driver, the team's press officer and an assistant coach. Some reports have indicated that a fourth victim, one of the team's goalkeepers, has also died. The team was on its way from a training camp to the African Nations Cup tournament, which is being hosted in four venues in Angola, including Cabinda city.

Despite unconscionable pressure from PR-conscious Angolan officials and representatives from the African soccer confederation CAF, the Togolese team has withdrawn from the tournament.

Cabinda, which is separated from mainland Angola by DR Congo's territory, is the country's oil heartland and is also the source of a small but violent separatist movement. Given that Cabinda's instability was no secret, it was criminally irresponsible for the tournament organizers to schedule matches in Cabinda and for CAF to allow it.

Officials have already stated that the Nations' Cup will go on. However for the security of fans, the press and players, matches scheduled for Cabinda must be moved to the other venues in mainland Angola. This includes all matches in Group B (involving two of the continent's most prominent teams, Ivory Coast and Ghana, as well as Burkina Faso) as well as one quarterfinal match.

All yet, there is no indication that this blindingly obvious decision will be made. CAF already has the blood of four deaths on its hands. Does it want more?


Update: There is some speculation on Twitter that Ghana may also pull out.

Further updates: According to AFP, the Togolese players have decided to defy their government's decision and participate in the tournament. CAF has insisted stubbornly and stupidly that matches will be played as scheduled in Cabinda, despite the rebels announcing that they would step up military attacks.