Togo’s soccer players are in limbo, with no end in sight to a suspension of league competitions and fears growing about the impact of the 11-month suspension on the national side.
No ball has been kicked in the country’s top two domestic leagues for nearly a year, leaving the 2014-2015 season unfinished after deadlines for the resumption of fixtures were missed.
The situation is frustrating the likes of Blaise Kouma, who captains second-division side Etoile Filante, based in Togo’s capital, Lome.
“We’re lacking competition and going backwards. It’s bad for Togo. We’re a great footballing nation,” he said.
Tom Saintfiet, the Belgian coach of the national side Les Eperviers (“The Sparrowhawks”), agreed.
“It’s a real shame. No competitive football for months. I’m having to do the rounds of small grounds in Lome to watch matches when there’s talent elsewhere in the country,” he said. “It’s not easy in this situation to spot new players.”
The restart of the leagues was first due on March 15 and the last on Sept. 12 — but both dates came and went.
Most clubs decided to boycott the competitions in protest at the so-called “normalization committee” headed by former Togolese minister of sports Antoine Folly.
The committee was put in place by world governing body FIFA in December last year to replace Togo’s soccer federation (FTF), which was riven with internal dissent and bad management.
FTF officials, including its president Gabriel Ayemi, were all dismissed.
The committee’s aim is to revise the FTF statutes and organize new elections by Nov. 30 at the latest.
It is also charged with improving the day-to-day running of the game, operating like an electoral commission whose decisions are definitive and binding.
However, for most club officials, the committee is not fit to run the leagues.
According to sources close to the committee, a first-division club in Togo has to spend at least 60 million CFA francs (US$104,000) every season.
However, the Togolese government subsidizes every team a total of only 10 million CFA francs.
As such, the crisis shows no sign of ending, which is pushing players, coaches and supporters toward small local tournaments.
One tournament organized last month by sports television station TLS at the Agoe Stadium in Lome’s northern suburbs attracted several thousand supporters.
Four top-flight clubs took part.
“It’s pathetic to see these players in small stadiums because they’re lacking competition,” said Adekanmi Olufade, a former Togo international. “The members of the federation and the club officials should back down to bring an end to this crisis, which has gone on long enough.”
For Kouassi Talon, technical director at Agaza, the championship “is grounded because the normalization committee is asleep.”
“They were given nine months, they’ve done nothing,” he added.
Supporters and club managers, tired of traipsing around small stadiums, are also speaking out.
The crisis comes just as a number of players, including former captain Emmanuel Adebayor, have made themselves unavailable for selection.
Former Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Manchester City and Real Madrid striker Adebayor and others have criticized the “chaos.”
To top it all, a friendly match with Egypt in Cairo on Tuesday last week was canceled due to organizational difficulties, hampering Togo’s preparations for upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS