Lagos — THE just concluded African Nations Cup finals in Angola began on a sad note - for the Togolese national team at least. The bus ferrying the team, players and officials, was callously and brutally attacked by Cabinda rebels in Angola on their way in from their Congo training base. That attack left two Togolese members of the delegation and a third Angolan driver dead.

The world was scandalized and shocked that such an incident could happen in an Africa that will host the rest of the world during the World Cup finals in South Africa in June.

The ANC ended on an even sadder note again for Togo when the Confederation of African Football (CAF), organizers of the tournament, slammed a ban on the country from participating in the next two editions of the competition.

CAF had anchored its decision on the nebulous premise that the Togolese government 'interfered' with that country's football affairs when it ordered her players home to mourn their dead compatriots. But even after they had traveled to mourn their dead, the Togolese had still offered to return to play, a request CAF turned down.

For this 'governmental interference' when evidently the players had voiced willingness to continue with the competition in honor of their slain colleagues, CAF had not only banned Togo for two editions of the games but also slammed a fine of 50,000 US dollars on her. This does not make any sense at all.

While the deadly attack on Togo during a competition had shocked the whole football world, the insane decision of the African soccer governing body to add insult to injury has elicited utter disbelief, outrage and scorn from all around the world. Togolese star player Emmanuel Adebayor described the CAF decision as 'monstrous.'

The ban inevitably re-opened the issues of responsibility and culpability for the attack on Togo with many wondering if it was not CAF and the Angolan government that should be sued by the Togolese government and sanctioned by the whole world for their cavalier security arrangements that endangered the competitors in the tournament!

The CAF ban has also brought to the fore the suitability of the body's present leadership headed by Issah Hayatou, whose pronouncements and decisions have of late taken on King Lear dimensions of dementia. Clearly, Hayatou has been too long in the forest of African football to be able to see the trees clearly. It is, indeed, time for the sit-tight CAF president to be shown the way out before he destroys African football through such reckless decisions as the Togo ban.

While claiming to be growing African football, the decision to ban Togo for two editions of the game clearly would end up killing football in that tiny West African country whose players will be denied a shop window for the next four years to showcase their skills and attract possible buyers overseas.

Also, the ban is so insensitive that it would rub the players who survived the deadly Angola attack the wrong way besides rubbishing the memories of their dead comrades. Whereas compassion and empathy are qualities needed by the CAF leadership in the Togo case, Hayatou and his co-leaders in CAF have instead demonstrated complete insensitivity, lack of good judgment and pig-headedness, by invoking an arcane rule to sanction a country that was machine-gunned and forced to pull out of the game.

Agreed that such a rule exists, but rules are made for man and not man for rules. Also, when has it become the practice to machine-gun innocent footballers representing their countries and entertaining their fans? And what are CAF's sanctions against countries like Angola who murder their guests in cold blood? In fact, CAF should instead have sanctioned Angola rather than Togo.

As Pascal Dodjoma, a spokesman for Togo Football Federation (TFF) observed, and we agree, CAF and Hayatou have completely betrayed Togo in a very un-African manner, which calls for FIFA, the UEFA and other saner football governing bodies to wade into the matter and adjudicate. Four years out of competitive football will have an adverse effect on Togo. This is not just about football but about the very existence of small nations like Togo whose football exports contribute to their GDP.

FIFA's Sepp Blatter must step in and save African football from the debilitating touch of dinosaurs like the Hayatou-led CAF. In Europe, as many know, the football family would have rallied round the affected country rather than throw her into outer darkness more so in the run up to Africa's first World Cup.

While joining Togo in her bid to get the ban and fine rescinded, we urge the African Union whose member countries take part in the Nations' Cup to put a check to this high-handed continental bureaucrat whose organization is largely funded by African governments but who treats African governments with disdain.

CAF under Hayatou has done much to destroy than grow African football by retaining on its statute books rules and regulations that are anti football and anti-people. We, therefore, join millions of others world-wide, to say, enough of this tin-god's tyranny over African football and footballers.