Foreign Policy Blogs

Togo or Not Togo? (Not Togo)

Bahrain’s football team wondered why the Togolese team they had just beaten 3-0 last Tuesday played so poorly. Togo, after all, had been one of Africa’s representatives in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Well, it turns out that the reason Togo’s team did not seem very good was that they weren’t. Bahrain had played a group of imposters. Apparently a fake agent was able to sell the game to Bahrain (and the friendly appeared on FIFA’s website as well), which is in the process of preparing for the Asian championships and presumably would like to warm up with actual competition. Togo’s sports minister promises to investigate, though there is no indication that there is any wrongdoing in Togolese football circles.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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