Togo have been disqualified from the African cup of nations. On Friday they were subject to an attack by rebels in Cabinda who opened fire on their team coach killing 3 people and seriously injuring their substitute keeper.

Naturally after the shock of it all the players were taken back to Togo to mourn the dead. However despite all this and in a brave show of defiance, the team were hoping to return to Angola to compete in the tournament to honour the dead. Its a very courageous statement for the players to make as at the end of the day who would want to risk their lives for the sake of a game?

However, the African FA seem to have taken an extremely hard line with Togo. Togo requested that their first game be postponed so they could mourn their dead and then return to the tournament and compete. it would have been the storyline of a blockbuster movie had they returned and won but this was not meant to be. On Monday Togo didn’t play their first game of the tournament because the African FA rejected their plea to re arrange the group games. The result of this was that the team were officially disqualified from the tournament.

A very hard line to take in my opinion and shame on the organisers to make such a hard lined decision in the wake of such an attack.