Togo will be the first team in FIFA’s 76-year-history who qualified for the World Cup Finals to widraw from a match.
Togo is reported to be on a bus going to catch a flight from Friedrichshafen airport to go home. Reports are flying that Togo is fighting over pay row and opted to leave the Finals instead of waiting for a decision by their officials.
In an excerpt of the story from ESPN:
We are on the bus now,’ coach Otto Pfister told Reuters on the telephone. ‘I think they have found a solution but I don’t know what it is and I don’t want to know,’ he added. The team is due to catch a flight from Friedrichshafen airport.
The Togolese, beaten 2-1 by South Korea in their opening match on their World Cup debut, did not leave their base in Wangen on Sunday in time to catch their scheduled morning flight to Dortmund. Instead players held crisis meetings with officials over the pay row.
The dispute had prompted Pfister, a German, to walk out just before the tournament, saying it made it impossible for him to do his job. He returned just in time for the first match.
Players from the tiny West African country have demanded 155,000 euros ($196,300) each to play and 30,000 euros for each win, half that for each draw. But officials from the country with an average per capita income of well below $1,000 have said those demands are too high.
This is really bad and I hope they understand the impact of this. It could be possible that they will be banned forever in FIFA World Cup Finals which is going to be unfair to the country and their people. And worst comes to worst the World Cup Finals may not even be played in Africa because of this.
Man, I could understand a person’s rage especially on salary/pay problem but still you have to represent your country no matter what.
Thousands of soldiers don’t even get food supply during war but still they die for their country. We have Filipinos here in the Philippines who also suffered pay problems like legend boxer Luisito Espinosa and current World Champion Manny Pacquiao; but still they brought home the highest title.
If Otto Pfister’s answer to the call is true then severe penalty should be handed down to them. Man don’t ask for the moon and the stars when the amount your country spent to send you to Germany could have already saved hundreds if not thousands of lives in Africa.
[tags]FIFA World Cup, World Cup, FIFA World Cup 2006, Germany, Togo[/tags]
