Fake Togolese side that played Bahrain

Former Togo sports minister Antoine Folly has been arrested in connection with the sham friendly match against Bahrain earlier this month.

A bunch of players masquerading as Togo internationals represented the nation in Bahrain for a friendly while the real national side where on Africa Nations Cup duty.

“Mr Folly was arrested overnight Thursday to Friday at his home in Lome and driven to the police station.

“He was kept at the police station where he was questioned,” a member of Folly’s family said on Monday.

Two other members of Togo FA’s caretaker committee are also to be quizzed, according to sources close to the committee probing the corrupt act.

Former national coach Bana Tchanile was the main man behind one of the most embarrassing episodes in the west African country’s sporting history when he pitched up in the Bahraini capital of Manama for the September 7 match.

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.

Tchanile has since been banned for three years and has offered his apologies for his “mistakes”.