Officials at the African Cup Of Nations soccer tournament in South Africa were left red faced last night after it emerged that Togo, whose victory over Algeria on Sunday dumped one of the favourites out of the tournament, wasn't actually a real place in Africa at all, but a fake name adopted by Cripplegate Casuals, an East London Sunday league outfit currently languishing at the foot of the local Hoxton League Div III.
Since entering they've enjoyed mixed fortunes with a narrow 2-1 defeat by highly fancied Ivory Coast followed by a magnificent 2-0 victory over a powerful Algerian side which should have led to a clash against Tunisia with a victory seeing them progress into the knockout stages.
Tony Milner 29, the team captain told reporters. "We only entered for a bit of a laugh really. We certainly didnt expect to progress this far. To knock out the likes of Algeria has been a real bonus. The lads are absolutely over the moon to be fair. Admittedly one or two of our players got some funny looks at times, especially Ginger Atkinson our striker, the two Chinese lads and Bogdan our Romanian goalie, but in all fairness I think our attacking style of play has hopefully won us a few friends amongst the neutrals.
The African Football Federation issued a statement last night. "Obviously we're a bit embarrassed and steps will now be taken to ensure nothing like this can happen again, but with Africa being such a big place and with so many small countries in it you can understand how a mix up like this could happen. I mean it stands to reason"
It's believed that a senior member of the AFF is currently studying his atlas to see if he can find Burkina Faso.
