More important than life and death?

The Confederation of African Football (CAF), the body regulating football in Africa, has fined the National football authorities in Togo $50,000 and banned the team from the next two African Nations Cup tournaments. The confederation has justified the move on the grounds that the national government of Togo allegedly interfered in footballing matters by ordering the national team home instead of allowing players to continue participating in the tournament after two team officials were killed when the team bus they were travelling on was machine gunned ahead of the commencement of the tournament in Angola this month. Piers Edwards rightly calls it a jaw-dropping decision. The legendary Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly, once famously quipped that football was more important that life and death. It is doubtful that he truly believed that. Unfortunately, others seem to have taken him at his word.,

Chris Donnelly