Thoughts are with Adebayor amid Togo bus tragedy
I thought I’d jump in immediately with an opinion on the Togo bus tragedy that has sent shockwaves through the African Nations Cup and confirmed my fears for the 2010 World Cup, which will do well not to have at least one incident of this type.
An armed gang in Angola opened fire last night on the Togo national side’s bus, injuring four personnel and killing the driver, with players huddling under their seats for 20 minutes, avoiding the gunfire.
Premier League chiefs are already making enquiries into players’ safety, and I’m sure Arsenal are making the proper phone calls to make sure Emmanuel Eboue and Alex Song are locked up safe.
Among those on the Togo bus was ex-Arsenal forward and fans’ pantomime figure, Emmanuel Adebayor. And already, I’ve seen some quite unsavoury things said on Facebook and Twitter, hinting towards the Adebayor-chant being adapted crudely with the words “shoot him some more.”
Let me be the first to say that if any such chant is even murmured at the Emirates on April 24 relating to this terrible incident, I will be embarrassed to be an Arsenal fan. This is not me jumping on my high horse come April to look cool and aloof – this is me stating my position from the off.
This is a human tragedy, not a sick football joke. Knee slides, touting yourself to ‘bigger’ clubs, shirt burning and all the other football ire pales into insignificance compared to the bigger, nastier parts of life out there.
So please – if the vocal reception as expected for Adebayor is going to be riotous at the Emirates in April – stick to the football. Not the tragedy.
Here’s hoping the Togo team and its players can recover from an horrific incident.
Everton preview to come later. Keep it civil in the meantime.
Filed under: Blogging
Well said. A game is a game is a game, shouldn’t be taken for more. Our thoughts are with Ade.
Agree totally mate.
well said
. and by the way, with the world cup coming up in the summe, this paints the player secuirty in a bad light for the foreign nations. if this is how they react to fellow africans, what would they do to a bus of foreigners…..
My thoughts go out to the family of the driver who was killed & the players that were injured. I wouldn’t wish Ade any harm (on the pitch is a different matter) but he is the last person in my thoughts.
Well put, GMR. I implied as much (that all involved are in our thoughts), but I guess that wasn’t reflected in the headline.
The man is a disgrace to football and humanity in general. I’ve no idea why anyone’s heart “would go out to him”. This is not a tragedy, it’s a celebration of life and I hope it damages his nerves to the point where he can’t hold a spoon. Let him burn in hell for all he did.
Enjoying your doritos behind your computer there, Boris?
Funny that I don’t remember him ever having thoughts of the fans when we were paying through our noses to help pay for his extortionate wages putting some of us quite close to the breadline. Maybe it’ll bring back down to earth again.
Thoughts with the rest of the togo team and all on the bus especially those injured.
Boris, you don’t kick a man when he’s down. you sound so stalinist.
Agree with GMR, whilst i don’t want to go Glenn Hoddle on the subject and wish him any specific harm, my heart certainly doesnt go out to him.
if this is how they react to fellow africans, what would they do to a bus of foreigners….
I think this opinion is slightly 1980s don’t you think? For starters to imply that because Angolans shot at the Togo team bus during the African Cup of Nations, that then Africans would then see the World Cup as a target range due to the foreigners is a little ignorant.
Im sure player security will be even higher than the very high levels that it was going to be anyway, but an event in South Africa is a completely different proposition to an event in Angola.
totally agree thoughts are with him and then but in regards to feaars over the WC sadly this is wat u get in africa i am ghanian nd nyone who knows africa knows gunmen on the road tryng to hijack buses looking to rob any goods is sadly commonplace it happens in neaaar enough all african countries…..this to africa is knife crime to england sadly it happens on a daily basis
Good wishes to Adebayor, FROM A GOONER. If you cannot segregate between real life and a football match you must have some kind of mental illness.
I can’t understand people like Boris !! Don’t like Adebayor, never have actually, but hey, this is different ! I can recall my disgust at Liverpool supporters and their rendition of the Dambusters March when they play Man Utd. Lets hope Gooners prove to be made of better stuff !!
Larry
I hope the Cameroonian team flew in and are in safety. Christ that’s ridiculous.
Jammathon, you’d probably agree, I have serious worries about the World Cup. Especially those games played in Jo-burg. Unwitting tourists and Africa don’t mix well.
For those that don’t know, I come from South Africa. Tiki, yes, there is a major worry for the World Cup – I’m not expecting gangs firing AK47s or anything like that, but crime can be a massive disruption for the tournament. Fingers crossed this isn’t the case.
@ Martin implying that everywhere in africa gunmen are waiting to shoot down/hijack buses is ignorant for anyone but for an african is damn right idiotic. As an african who has lived in several african countries (due to the nature of my job), I can tell you that is totally bull**ks!
The incident only shows that the decision to host the ANC in Angola was a bad decision just because the country recently recovered from a terrible civil war. secondly the region where the togo team bus was attacked was close to the congo border where a lot of militant unrest occurs post civil war. The U17 championship just concluded in Nigeria 2 months back, I didnt hear of gunmen trying to attack or hijactk team buses and the security wasnt half of what players have in Angola @ the moment. The WC is a chance for africa to celebrate Football and its culture with everyone around the world and though we have our problems, the last thing we need is an ignoramus generalizing Africa as a violent stricken continent, and scarig people away.
With regards to Adebayor, all I can say is your actions and personality as a person always dictate the reactions of others towards you whether civil or uncivil.
Don’t think anyone be wishing well if Ade’buy’or would have caused serious damages to RVP!
South africa is nt like da rest of africa fcker! theres no gunman shooting at buses or cival war. Get ova da misconception.
I most certainly feel for the Togo team but you bet my thoughts don’t go out to adebayor. I won’t wish him harm off the pitch but I as hell don’t care what happens to him elsewhere. You rip what you sow.
To infer that an attack by gunmen on a bus carrying football players in Angola suggests that a similar incident is likely to happen in South Africa for the 2010 WC is ignorance beyond anything excuseable.
I am from South Africa.
I live in Fourways, and travel in to my clients in central Johannesburg and elsewhere around the periphery on a daily basis.
While we do have issues with crime, including hi-jackings, none of them to my knowledge have so far included a combination of automatic or semi-automatic weapons and buses.
I also don’t have to fight my way through gun-battles on my way to work either.
Tourists will indeed need to keep their wits about them, but almost all of the problems are avoidable by maintaining some common sense and just like sailing off-shore, check with the locals as to what is or isn’t safe, and where one should or shouldn’t go.
I would venture to suggest that there are areas in the USA and UK that are just as dangerous to venture in to as the no-go areas here.
This is not disimilar to being intelligent enough to figure out that getting out to stand next to a lion or an elephant while posing for a picture is not likely to end well.
Sometimes it’s the modern equivalent of survival of the fittest.
I quite like this blog, but I dispair when I see ill-informed, or to put it bluntly, stupid comments like that.
If you’re going to comment, make sure you know even a tiny bit about what you’re commenting on.
stop painting africa dirty. that kind of thing happens even in europe. roma fans stubbing people, the leeds united fans killed a few years back? as for ade! u greedy twat acted immature as a man but as a footballer? thanks a lot for 31 in a season. we havent seen that since henry and my thoughts with u and all hurt in angola.
Furthermore, to ignore the fact that terrorist acts can and do happen in so-called first world or developed nations (9/11, 7/7, Munich Olympics etc anyone?), and claim that only Africa or the Sub-continent are some sort of gun-toting, wild west territories is pure ignorance at best, otherwise, failing such generousity, one might be forced to assume it was just pure racism.
Not to mention that this incident happened in a remote, uncontrolled region.
Stupid that they thought of hosting Togo there, yes, but hardly the same as saying that the whole of Angola is now a pitched battle arena, or extrapolating that to claim South Africa is now a similar attack waiting to happen.
To place some perspective on this:
how would you (as an American), view an article written by someone who had just watched the film “Deliverance” and written about how they were worried about being captured and buggered by rednecks in New York while on holiday?
An American might laugh it off as a joke right now (and rightly so), but that would not be the case if it became a widely accepted generalisation, would it?
This is similar to how Gooners get pissed off about the morons from barca and real dribbling on about Cesc, and why no-one would take us seriously if we started banging on about buying Messi.
MikeSA – seeing as I lived in Durban for 16 years, I think I have a slight inclination to what it’s like.
And all my remarks, limited as they were about the WC (one paragraph that’s obviously struck a chord), were in reference to the dire crime problem in SA, including a police force who shoot first and ask questions later.
The tournament itself should be pretty good. What goes on around the games, I await with baited breath.
So where you get the idea I’m american, ek weet nie.
That’s also the last I’ll even bother about the whole SA/Africa topic. The article is about chants about Adebayor with relating to the shooting. Regardless of where it actually took place, the point still stands.
half of you are a disgrace how can you wish death on a man who has only insulted us in football terms i dont care if it was adybeyor, van persie or fabregas on that bus it still should not happen.
So one guy stated who ady did not stick up for us when ticket prices remained high so what does that say he and his team mates deserves to die. Thats like killing a man for taking your last ROLO! all you ney sayers are pethetic.
i send my thoughts out to the family of the bus driver, Adebeyor and his collegues and hope that all injured parties recover fully from thier injuries. lets hope this does not happen to other teams during this competition
STAY SAFE FELLA’S
What James said. Exactly right, mate.
Apologies then Jammathon. I confused this with a blog that is written by an American and looks vaguely similar in style and layout (I think).
My comments were not only directed at you though, they were also aimed at at least one of the posted replies that basically intimated that Africa was not a fit place to host an intenational football tournament.
As you know, we have hosted smaller events successfully (Rugby WC, Cricket WC, IPL etc), so yes, while we are all concerned about crime, it’s certainly something that can be mitigated against.
I find the IPL decision to be hosted in South Africa rather than the “safe pair of hands” that England claimed they were, rather telling.
I remember Angola from my youth, when we were rather heavily involved in the civil war there, so I have some less than fond memories of the place.
Currently a related family member flies choppers on the oil rigs over there, and while it’s not always the most pleasant place on the planet, we really need to see the Togo team situation for what it was.
It was unbelieveably stupid for the organisers to try and host the team up there in the first place.
Secondly, it was even more stupid for the team to be transported there by bus, apparently contrary to all tournament rules and arrangements.
That’s very like the tourist who climbs out his car to have a picture taken with a lion and gets mauled to death, or stood on by an elelphant.
Sometimes people reap the consequences of their stupidity.
Unfortunately, in this case, some innocent people paid the price for that stupidity.
I like to tell some of you guys who painted africa as unsave, that africa is save, that was how Nigeria was said to be unsave to host under 17WC, but all the countries that came for the tournament realised that all the bad things said about Nigeria were not true there was no single incident of crime, in Africal we love foreigners,the Angola incident is just unfortunate because they just got out of civil war and some of the millitants are into crime now.
my thought goes to the injured players and i wish them fast recovery
No probs, MikeSA. It’s at least good to have a fellow South African reading the blog. I love my country of birth, but I’m also very frank about some of it’s problems. I remain open (and will be glad) to being proved wrong.
All a bit Neville Chamberlain. Shame about the driver though.
“shoot him some more.”
LMFAO
[...] But first, to a little transfer speculation – also, if you haven’t read it already, there was some serious news in Angola involving Emmanuel Adebayor. Read the reaction to it here. [...]
My family is also from South Africa. And unfortunately a member of my family was on the receiving end of violent & fatal crime. So I have severe doubts about the ability of South Africa to provide security, etc to the travelling fans of any visiting nation. If they can’t look after their own people, how can they possibly look after hordes of ignorant tourists?
Although. Yes Angola is a separate case, much like Congo. My father and all my uncles served there during the War of Independence. So yes, it is more prone to violent crime. But, on the other hand South Africa has a history of crime, due to the intense poverty of a large portion of it’s people.
Anyway, I hope Arsenal win tonight, and the ACN and World Cup wrap up with no more tragedies.
I usually like reading your articles and find you present a reasonable balanced view. I guess you should just stay of politics. Linking the World Cup in south africa with a one off incident in some troubled border region in Angola is stupid to the extreme.It’s like me believing the hyperbole of the Indian media about Australians all being blood thirsty racists who just can’t wait to stab/burn/kill any Indians.
I do not know anything of the situation in Africa but I know enough about terrorism to know that such incidents can happen anywhere. Numerous terrorist attacks have taken place in my country over the past 20 years yet I don’t feel unsafe, or at least any more unsafe than I felt in London or Paris.
As regards crime, tourists need to be alert anyway. Crime does really happen anywhere. You MAY!!! have better recourse to law in the developed countries after the crime but that’s about the only difference.
A little perspective is in order, especially since I’m guessing you know very little about the situation in Angola and in Africa in general.
How ironic that an Indian accuses an Australian of racism by resorting to generalisations. It’s also unfortunate for you that I am South African by birth, lived there for 16 years, and know enough about the situation to make educated guesses. Crime is a jarring factor in the country, Shard, and I’d hope (but don’t expect) an apology for your slander.
I do not sometimes comment on websites but I needed to drop in and say thanks for posting this, I totally agree and hopefully folks will see your argument.
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