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On Jan 8th, the Togo National Team (Africa) was gunned down, five months before Africa was to host their first World Cup.

They were on their way to the African Cup of Nations. They were ambushed with machine guns. They crouched under the seats. The driver was killed along with one other and nine others were injured. They are still suffering from nightmares.

So how do the people that run African soccer attone for this tragedy? The Confederation of African Football (CAF) ban the Togo team from the next two African Cup tournaments. They punish them. What the hell is that? They are banned.

Togo was banned “in conformity with article 78″ that says…teams that withdraw at short notice from the biennial tournament can be suspended for two following editions and can also be fined.

They didn’t miss to go to another tournament. They didn’t miss to go on tv…or because they had something better to do. They missed because their goalie’s stomach was full of bullet fragments. A trainer died in their arms. They all thought they were going to die.

There are varying stories because it’s rooted in politics….that the team wanted to play, they didn’t want to play, they wanted to skip the tournament to go home and bury their dead teammates.

But punish them? I can’t think of anything more cruel right now adding insult to injury after suffering a terrorist attack. Surely in this instance a rule can be broken.

http://forums.sportsjabber.net/sjforums/showthread.php?p=173305#post173305