Zambia's Bwalya joins those wanting reprieve for Togo

Kalusha Bwalya, president of the Football Association of Zambia, has pleaded with the Confederation of African Football to reconsider their two-year ban of Togo from the Africa Cup of Nations.

He was speaking from Zambia, where he attended the 17th anniversary commemoration of his Chipolopolo teammates, who died in a plane crash off Gabon in 1993.

Bwalya called on Caf to "show compassion to one of their children" by reversing their exclusion of the west African country from the 2012 and 2014 tournaments.

"If your children do something wrong, you do not withdraw their school fees as a form of punishment," he said. "You forgive them because you gave them life and cannot take away that life. The people who govern Caf are our fathers. They can reflect on the decision. Togo should be given a chance to play in the next competition."

Caf's ban followed Togo's decision to pull out of the Angola competition after an assistant coach and press officer were killed and several delegates wounded in an attack on their team bus in Cabinda.

Caf's decision sparked worldwide condemnation.

"In the African tradition, you cannot play a game until you have buried your dead. I believe football must always be played. However, you cannot come from a situation where people die and others injured and be expected to play," he said.

"As a person who has been in an almost similar situation, I am hopeful that when the executive sits again, the decision will be rectified. "

Togo appealed against their disqualification with the Court for the Arbitration of Sport. Following A CAS mediation initiated by Fifa president Sepp Blatter this week, Caf president Issa Hayatou "accepted to ask his executive committee to lift the sanction excluding Togo as the Togo Football Federation agreed that it had not communicated to Caf the withdrawal of its team from the Africa Cup of Nations Angola 2010 in accordance with the competition regulations."

With 32 days before the 2010 World Cup kicks off, the challenge for Africa's six contestants is to go better than the quarterfinal finishes achieved by Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002.

"I want to see Africa make history and reach the semifinals," said Bwalya. "Ivory Coast are world-class. Algeria have potential - they can surprise everybody - and Cameroon's pedigree is well known. Ghana showed what they are capable of with a second-round place in Germany, something Nigeria have done before."

What about the hosts?

"It is too early to panic. We should be expectant and positive.

"When the stage is set, that will be the moment we will see Bafana rise."

Bwalya, who has served as SA's World Cup ambassador since 2004, said: "This is an important moment for us as Africans because of where we come from as a continent.

"If it is not colonialism it is apartheid, disease, war, strife, HIV/Aids; we are always at the worst end of the news. This event gives Africa a chance to turn the tide."

Of southern Africa's tag as the weaklings of African football, Bwalya said the region needed a change of attitude and tougher mentality from players, supporters and officials.

"We are bad travellers and it is a weapon others use against us because we are too soft. They rough us up a little bit and we crack. If they give a penalty against us in 20 minutes, we collapse.

"We complain about the bad hotel, about the bus with no air conditioner. Guess what, the bus and the hotel do not play."

Bwalya said when Chiefs played Pirates, the stadium was full. Yet when those teams played in Caf competi-tions, nobody came to watch.

"The fact that Pirates and Bafana were African champions at club and national level in 1995 and 1996 respectively tells you a lot about SA's football standing," he said. "Somewhere, people became comp-lacent." Bafana failing to win even one game in 2006 in Egypt should have sounded alarm bells.