TOGO -SOCCER : Togo is still to rebuild its national football team two years after the attack that left two squad members dead and eight injured.

Record ID: 254402

  • Title: TOGO -SOCCER : Togo is still to rebuild its national football team two years after the attack that left two squad members dead and eight injured.
  • Date: 12th January 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF RODRIGUE IKO, SPORTS JOURNALIST, TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (French) RODRIGUE IKO, SPORTS JOURNALIST SAYING: "It had an effect on the performance of the national team, for your information, that's why the national team didn't qualify for CAN 2012 (Coupe d'Afrique des Nations). You saw the performance for the eliminations, all this had an impact on the team and also at the management level, the management are hesitant about committing 100 percent" FOOTBALL GAME (SOUNDBITE) (French) RODRIGUE IKO, SPORTS JOURNALIST, SAYING: "This means the national team is not yet together. We need to reassemble a national team" NIBOMBE WAKE, FORMER TOGO GOALKEEPING COACH, SITTING AT HOME WAKE STANDING TO WALK (SOUNDBITE) (French) NIBOMBE WAKE, FORMER TOGO GOALKEEPING COACH, SAYING: "Nothing, nothing at all, zero, not a dime. The day we came back (from Cabinda) and for another couple of days, we saw everyone in front of the party, then everything was over, everyone disappeared, it was over. We saw high ranking authorities when we got back and that was it, since then I'm having to look after myself, even for the hospital" WAKE'S LEG VARIOUS OF CONFERENCE ROOM/ MEETING ABOUT REDUCING NUMBER OF WEAPONS IN AFRICA VARIOUS OF TOGO NATIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER KPATOUMBI LIABE (IN RED SHIRT) VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) KPATOUMBI LIABE, TOGO NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER, SAYING: "What happened to us that day, it was not easy. I have a military background, but I'd never before been under fire for 30 minutes like that. I don't know if in football we can shoot on people like that" FOOTBALL GAME IN THE STREET (SOUNDBITE) (French) EDDY KOMLAN, SOCCER FAN, SAYING: "There are many consequences. Even to this day, numbers have diminished, even football fans that were present at matches are psychologically affected. If you see our stadiums today, everybody remembers the drama and the football fields are deserted"
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Togo
  • Country: Togo
  • Topics: Crime,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA2AZOZ79F9RUILDTO9W6PA82II
  • Story Text: It is two years since the Togolese national football squad was ambushed on its way to the African Nations Cup in Angola and the attack is still very present in people's minds.
    Stadiums are not as full as they once were and the national team finds it difficult to reassemble.
    The Togolese Sports Ministry together with the Football Federation formed a commission which is charged with finding a qualified coach, but it has not yet appointed anyone.
    Two squad officials and the bus driver died and eight people were injured in an attack that shook the entire football world. Rebels in Cabinda claimed responsibility.
    Togolese football officials, families and friends gathered at a church last Sunday (January 8) in the capital, Lome, to remember the victims.
    The country still struggles to come to terms with the attack on the squad bus as it tries to rebuild the football team.
    "It had an effect on the performance of the national team, for your information, that's why the national team didn't qualify to the CAN 2012 (Coupe d'Afrique des Nations). You saw the performance for the eliminations, all this had an impact on the team and also at the management level, the management are hesitant about committing 100 percent," said Rodrigue Iko, a sports journalist from Lome.
    "This means the national team is not yet together. We need to reassemble a national team," he said.
    The daze in which Togolese football has remained since the attack is also visible in a lack of support for the members of the team who were injured in the attack.
    Nibombe Wake was a goalkeeping coach whose leg was injured in the ambush, but he said he has not had any help either from the government or the football federation.
    "Nothing, nothing at all, zero, not a dime. The day we came back and for another couple of days, we saw everyone in front of the party, then everything was over, everyone disappeared, it was over. We saw high ranking authorities when we got back, and that was it, since then I'm having to look after myself, even for the hospital," Wake said.
    Togolese international Emmanuel Adebayor initially said he would not return to the squad, but then changed his mind.
    Other players think everybody will eventually return.
    "What happened to us that day, it was not easy. I have a military background, but I'd never before been under fire for 30 minutes like that. I don't know if in football we can shoot on people like that," said Kpatoumbi Liabe, a squad member.
    Confusion still reigns both within the football federation as well as within the minds of Togolese supporters.
    "Even to this day, numbers have diminished, even football fans that were present at matches are psychologically affected. If you see our stadiums today, everybody remembers the drama, and the football fields are deserted," said Eddy Komlan, a soccer fan.
    Despite the grief, ordinary Togolese look forward to the competition this year, hoping it will help erase bad memories and entice officials into action, to rebuild the national squad.
    In the meantime, despite his own country not attending, a Togolese musician has already composed a song he hopes will be one of the official songs for the African Nations Cup.
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