Quite simply unbelievable.

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Togo team arrive back in Lome, Togo after attack on team bus in Angola

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) insists it was right to ban Togo from the next two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments despite widespread criticism of the decision.
CAF also lashed out at what it called “the press campaign aimed at tarnishing the image of high personalities of the hierarchy of African football.”
Togo were banned from the next two editions tournaments and fined $50,000 for withdrawing from the event in Angola.
They withdrew after a gun attack on their party killed two people and injured several others, on the insistence of the Togolese government.
Caf said the Togolese players had wanted to stay, and therefore the decision to pull them out amounted to “government interference”.
The Caf ruling has been widely condemned in various circles including governments, footballers and fans while protests were held in Lome against the ban.
But after an executive committee meeting in Lubumbashi, Caf insists that its decision to ban the Hawks is backed by their regulations.
“The suspension of Togo for the next two Africa Cups of Nations is a decision unanimously arrived at by the entire Executive Committee,” a Caf executive committee statement read.

The suspension of Togo for the next two Africa Cups of Nations is a decision unanimously arrived at by the entire Executive Committee
Caf executive committee
“The decision was taken on the basis of the regulations of the competition and the statutes of Caf.”
In the wake of the ban, protesters in the Togolese capital Lome called for Issa Hayatou to resign while a section of the media blamed the Cameroonian administrator for the decision.
But Caf’s executive committee heaped praise on its leader insisting that he is the right man to lead the continental body.
“The Caf executive committee strongly and officially congratulates President Issa Hayatou and reiterates to him its total confidence,” the statement said.
“He has our constant support and encouragement for him to pursue the ambitious and laudable projects for the development of African football.”
The continental football governing body revealed that the authorities in the west African country rejected a delegation from Caf to attend the funeral of the two deceased team officials in Lome. (BBC Sport)

So let me get this straight. CAF makes a disastrous ruling that would anger any sane human being and then attempts to claim that they are the victim of some sort of media witch hunt? How exactly does that work? The reason the CAF has received an unparalleled level of attention, and not good attention I might add, is because the governing body compounded one hideous decision with another and then made one hell of a bad decision that they must truly have wished they hadn’t arrived at.

It beggars belief that after seeing members of their coaching staff killed in cold blood and receiving shocking injuries of their own that the players of the Togo side were expected to compete in the African Nations Cup. Yes its true that some players wanted, respectfully, to take part in the tournament but the country’s government made the correct decision, in my view, to bring home their players. For that nation to then be given any type of ban would seem mindless at best and incredibly tactless and ill feeling at worst. Then for that ban to be of such a length, suspension from the next two African Nations Cups, well one can only imagine what the CAF were expecting the moment that ruling was handing out.

One can only hope that someone at CAF sees sense and attempts to cling on to some dignity by coming out and apologizing for the absurd decision but knowing just inept that organization can be I sincerely doubt any change of heart is in the offing. Also note how FIFA has been very quiet on this issue, once again showing just incompetent and impotent they can at times be.

You simply couldn’t script this whole mess, its like an Ealing comedy of a bygone age, where a bureaucratic nightmare of such proportions should surely only exist in fiction unfortunately the African continent has to contend with as a nightmare of a reality.

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