Former Togo boss banned over fraudulent friendly

A former manager of Togo has been slapped with a three-year ban for deploying a team of imposters masquerading as Togo internationals in a friendly against Bahrain.

Bahrain took to the pitch in the fixture in Manama on September 7 believing they were taking on the national side from the west African state.

Bahrain won the game, a warm-up for the West Asian Football Federation Championship, 3-0, only for it to later emerge that they had beaten a bunch of fraudsters.

An inquiry was launched last Thursday into the affair by the Togolese football authorities who on Monday identified former national coach Bana Tchanile as the man behind one of the most embarrassing episodes in the country’s sporting history.

“After investigations it’s clear that the organisation, the preparation and the follow-up was planned by Bana Tchanile without permission, nor agreement from the authorities,” a statement announced.

The statement, from the committee appointed on a temporary basis to replace the national federation which has been dissolved by FIFA, added: “Mr Tchanile is banned from all activities relating to football for a period of three years.

“Investigations are continuing to identify all those others implicated in this affair and for subsequent sanctions to be imposed.”

A member of the caretaker committee, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the team that had taken on Bahrain was made up of imposters.

“Togo didn’t send its national football team to Bahrain. As proof, the national team was returning from Gaborone after their 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Botswana,” he stated.

For Tchanile this is the second time in the space of a matter of weeks that he has fallen foul of the Togolese football authorities.

Last month he was suspended for two years for taking part with his youth training group in a competition in Egypt in which his players were kitted out in the national colours without permission.