Last update 6 April, 2024 by Alberto Llopis
This small African country is known for its footballing superstar striker Emmanuel Adebayor and also for their participation in the World Cup 2006. Here in Colgados by the Togolese Football League we will present one of the most modest of the entire African continent and three amazing stories whose protagonists selection known as Los Gavilanes.
Togo is located in West Africa, bordering Ghana to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Benin to the east and its only outlet to the sea is south, where its capital is located, Lome, the economic engine of the country and where it is almost 25% of the 6.800.000 Togolese living in the country. Has a surface of 56.785 km², It is the ninth smallest non insular territory of the entire African continent. It gained independence from France in 1960 and since the coup happened in 1963 Togo is subjected to a harsh dictatorship and it seems that there is little hope that the current leaders begin a smooth transition to democracy.
The Togolese Football Federation (FTF) it was founded the same year of independence and two years later he joined FIFA. FTF created the Championnat National de Premiere Division the same year of its foundation, as the first winner being the Etoile Filante of Lome. The championship has been played every year uninterruptedly, the last winner was the Anges FC. This past weekend started the tournament 2014, disputing it 12 equipment, including AC Semassi the Togolese team that has leagues in their windows with 9 titles.
A few years before the creation of the local league, some editions of the Coupe du Togo vied, being elevated in 1955 Essor as the first winner. This tournament has been quite irregular, with parones several seasons in which he was not played, the last champion was in 2006 the AS Togo-Port, taking the OC AGAZA as the club more gimped with 5 Cup titles.
Distributes the league 2 Continental only tickets that have the Togolese clubs, champion dispute the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation runner-up Cup (former African Cup Winners' Cup). The CAF has the FTF coefficient is very low, so their teams begin to participate in the early rounds, In fact this year's Anges FC was eliminated in the preliminary round by Nigerian champions Enyimba.
However, in the Confederation Cup AS Douanes Lomé successfully eliminated in the preliminary round Guineans CI Kamsar, to fall in the first round of Wadi Degla Egypt. The best interests of Togolese teams in continental competitions have been in 1994 when the OC AGAZA reached the semifinals of the former African Cup Winners' Cup and especially the Champions League 1968 when the Etoile Filante of Lome fell in the final against TP Mazembe of the Congolese on aggregate 6-4.
The team play their home games at the Stade de Kegue (Lome) capable 30.000 spectators. His first major achievement came in 1972 when they played the African Cup in Cameroon, In addition to this edition they have participated in 7 more editions, in this last edition (South Africa 2013) It was the only time they have achieved the Quarterfinals, además en 1987 They managed to qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Chile in what is its biggest milestone in lower selections.
But undoubtedly his greatest achievement the 8 of October 2006 in Brazzaville (Congo), when they won by 2-3 with two goals from Kader Toure to qualify for the World Cup to be held next year in Germany, ahead of Senegal authentic feel of the previous World. This was a big boom in the footballing world, since few Togolese players were known in the soccer scene, some players militated in French higher divisions (the league where they usually reach Europe Togolese footballers) including a young Adebayor who was active in Monaco, But in that same winter market it ended at Arsenal.
Their participation was nothing outstanding, framed in a strong group ( France, Switzerland and South Korea) They lost all their matches, but they got ahead in his Grand Prix debut at the Asian combined with a goal of myth Kader Toure, to finish falling 2-1. Europeans combined before they won two honorable defeats 2-0. In the last World Cup qualifier they have been last in their group, composed of Cameroon, Libya and DR Congo. As currently outstanding footballers, besides Adebayor, they have to: Serge Gakpe (Nantes), the goalkeeper Kossi Agassa (Reims) and Alaixys Romao (Olympique Marsella).
Three events have marked the Togolese football at different times: the most famous case in 2010 during the Africa Cup in Angola, a separatist group in Angola's Cabinda region indiscriminately shot the Togolese team bus, resulting dead the driver of the vehicle and seriously injured two players, Serge Akakpo y Kodjovi Obilale, also other 6 people were slightly injured, This provoked the resignation to the Togolese Combined competition.
Prior to this fact in 2008, a helicopter in which they were members of the FTF crashed near the airport in Sierra Leone departing, resulting 20 of the 22 passengers dead. Players to finish the qualifying match for the African Cup later, they decided to wait for another flight. Another done with a lot less tragic consequences happened in September 2010, the Togo team lost a friendly match against Bahrain 3-0, but a week the FTF confirmed that no Togolese delegation had played that game, It was later discovered that the party had been organized by a former manager of the FTF, to perform an alleged match-fixing.
