Togo says fake footballers represented nation

Mystery surrounds the identity of the team claiming to represent Togo in an international soccer friendly against Bahrain last week, reports Winnipeg Free Press.

Togo's interim football federation said Tuesday the team that lost 3-0 was "completely fake," while Bahrain insisted the game was legitimate.

Togo federation chairman Seiyi Memene said the body did not know the players that claimed to represent Togo in the match at Bahrain's National Stadium in Riffa last Tuesday.

"We cannot send our players to play friendly matches abroad without the approval of FIFA," Memene told The Associated Press. "The players that took part in the friendly match against Bahrain were completely fake. We have not sent any team of footballers to Bahrain. The players are not known to us."

Nabine Gnonh, chief of staff at Togo's sports ministry, said both the ministry and the football federation have now opened an investigation into the match.

Details are only just coming to light of a bizarre situation where a country may have been represented by players who are not international footballers, or even Togolese nationals.

"We don't have precise information at this point," Gnonh said. "We haven't received the list of the players who played this match and we still have to check if they were members of the national team."

Togo's version of events was disputed by Sheik Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the vice-president of the Bahrain Football Federation.
Al Khalifa acknowledged the game did not up live up to expectations. "It was a weak formal Togo team, I agree," he said. "The coaches and the players didn't benefit. It could have been the reserves."