African teams worried, but back decision to continue with competition despite attack
DEADLY ATTACK: A video grab from Angolan TV shows Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor (right) of Manchester City being comforted outside a hospital in Cabinda. — Reuters photo
LUANDA: Teams at the African Nations Cup expressed deep unease over Friday’s deadly attack on Togo but backed the decision to continue with the competition despite the tragic build-up to today’s opening game.
Paul Le Guen, coach of Cameroon, one of the favourites for the title, said yesterday: “I am a little concerned. It’s not worth losing your life for football.”
Cameroon are playing all their first round games in Lubango in the south of the country, away from the troubled northern enclave of Cabinda where hooded gunmen from the separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) attacked the Togo team buses killing a driver and injuring nine others.
“We aren’t playing in the same region. It happened in the north and we’ll be based in the south. We’ll be far away from the Cabinda province,” Le Guen told France’s Infosport.
Despite the machinegun ambush, Nations Cup teams like Malawi were ploughing on with their preparations.
Malawi are due to open their Cup campaign against Algeria tomorrow, and they held an early morning training session in Luanda, where they are based for the first round, as scheduled.
Afterwards Eduardo Gama, the team’s media officer, told AFP: “We are of course concerned with what has happened to the Togo team, and we have held talks with our federation’s president about security.
“We have asked for our security to be increased to ensure the players’ safety during the tournament.
“It’s fair to say our players are worried but I can assure our fans that we are convinced nothing will happen to us while we are in Angola.
“There is no question of us leaving, we feel welcome in this country.”
Togo, featuring Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor, were holding crisis talks yesterday which may well result in their pulling out of the 2010 Nations Cup.
“I think a lot of players want to leave,” Adebayor told BBC Radio Five Live in Britain early yesterday.
“If the security is not sure then we will be leaving tomorrow (today)… I don’t think they will be ready to give their life.”
A Togo pull-out will leave only Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso in Cabinda.
Cup organisers the Confederation of African Football (CAF) were due to make a statement later yesterday on the worrying security situation after emergency talks between Angola’s Prime Minister Paulo Kassoma and CAF president Issa Haytou.
African football officials have also been despatched to Cabinda to probe the circumstances surrounding Friday’s ambush.
One possible worry for organisers that the Cabinda teams of Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso might request to play their games elsewhere in Angola appeared to be allayed, however.
None of the trio have “expressed any worries,” a Nations Cup local organising committee (COCAN) member told AFP.
“The teams are there (in Cabinda), there’s no sign of any disquiet,” Constant Omari said.
A CAF source echoed Omari’s statement, confirming: “We haven’t received any expressions of concern from these teams.
“We are hearing lots of things and lots of rumours, but the one certain aspect is the investigation being undertaken by (competition organisers) the CAN.”
Omari added: “There is compassion (for the victims), but as far as recriminations go, that’s not the concern of CAF.
Show goes on
“The CAF is continuing with its schedule and the sovereign authorities of the country (Angola) are taking the adequate measures surrounding security.”
Omari, who is also the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo football federation, invoked a precedent to continuing with a competition which had been touched by tragedy.
“When Marc-Vivien Foe died, the games continued,” he said, referring to the fatal heartache suffered by the Cameroon midfielder during the 2003 Confederations Cup in France.
An Ivory Coast official contacted by AFP said that as far as they were concerned, the show goes on.
“For the moment there are no worries,” he reported.
“We’ve been well received. Everything is in place for the Nations Cup to pass off smoothly. We aren’t feeling concerned.
“We learned (about the attack) when we arrived in Cabinda yesterday (Friday) evening. We are fully supportive of Togo.”
Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast are scheduled to face Burkina Faso, with Ghana up against Togo, both tomorrow. — AFP