Monday, January 11, 2010

Starting Eleven Football Blog Roundup

The Guardian and many other outlets are reporting that Togo's request to rejoin the African Cup of Nations has been rejected by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The team's bus was machine-gunned by terrorists on Friday; three people in their convey were murdered by the terrorists operating under the guise of acting as Angolese rebels.

Togo's team had flown back to its home nation for a three-day period of mourning and petitioned the CAF to rejoin the tournament afterward. The federation rejected that plan today and says Togo's group in the tournament will be three-headed between Ivory Coast, Ghana and Burkino Faso.

This is the saddest day in football in a long time. It's not getting enough attention, and that's squarely because this is a small African nation taking part in a tournament, that while is of high quality, isn't seen in large measure in Europe and certainly not in the U.S. Imagine if this had happened to any of the major European national teams? I dare say the African Cup of Nations would be on hiatus right now; make book on it.

That said, we're wearing our black armband as we take our weekly trip around the football blogosphere:

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