Their fault; their bus was attacked by a terrorist group called Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) and their government pulled the team out of the tournament. It was “government interference” that CAF took into consideration when banning Emmanuel Adebayor and company from the next two Afcons.

What kind of leader is this? That you get shot at and you get a ban and a massive fine.

Hayatou’s decisions always baffle the mind. There are exceptions to every rule and Togo is. People’s lives are more important that some rule book gathering dust somewhere.

A few days ago, he said he “did not want the Nations Cup to be played in the same year as the World Cup or the European Championship, but that the event would remain in January”.

The January issue has for some time been affecting lots of African players at European teams.

The fact is these players earn a fortune from these teams. In fact, from what they make from winning an Afcon is what some earn in a week at their European clubs.

Portsmouth coach Avram Grant was quoted saying before the Afcon that: “I don’t know why Fifa allow this. I don’t know why they have the African Cup of Nations in January. We pay a lot of money, especially the big teams, to players who are not with you for two months. I think Fifa need to think about this.”

Hayatou, in turn, says: “We will do things the African way; we won’t be pushed into changing the Afcon dates.”

Good leaders are not arrogant. Take the Togo decision and the Afcon dates issue … is Hayatou a good leader?

Anyway, he is remembered for having fallen asleep during a World Cup match in France 1998, which was picked up by television cameras.

If it is basketball you love Mr Hayatou, it is not too late to change. You are only 63 years old and Fifa President Sepp Blatter is 73, therefore you still have a decade or more to make your mark in Basketball administration.

Chamz I hear you but the truth of the matter is this guy’s public desire of wanting to coach a top african team is iritating to say the least. You asked me if I had never attended an interview with a prospective employer while employed the answer is a big yes but I have done it with respect for my current employers not publicly telling my employers that I need a top class employer. HR did not end at voicing his disire but even said he did not need to come and pick up his bags from Zed but would fly straight from Luanda to Logos, worse still he was not offered a job but stayed on for some dark corner meeting with Nigeria FA officials instead of coming with the team so that he could be welcomed with every one else and have lunch with the head of state. He is a wrong champ, no one is against HR finding better butter with his so called top teams but the insolesce with which he does it sucks in all manner of logic.

We need a dedicated coach not someone who jumps at every oppotunity to advertise himself to other nations. If we stoped player agents from unnecessary inquries on our lads when they were at CAN why should our coach be the one advertising himself at such crucial time when we need his consentration. Zambia is too great for this small mentality coach who overates himself so much. He did not derserve to coach Zambia in the first place I bet even if he left, he can not coach any team better than Zambia. Reaching the last eight at CAN for the first time in 14 years is not too much to sing about just about any coach would have done it with our lads. The guy fails to read games and makes wrong substutes in effect Im just short of saying Zambia would have perfomed better than second round if it were not for HR.

It is not HR to tell us what we need to achieve with him but us to tell him just like you dont tell your employers what your job description should be so the story of saying he promised CAN and second round place which he delivered was not just a mediocre target but HRs own target and not what us Zambians set for him. Like sparks said we should be ashamed cerebrating a second round place at CAN with one victory when we have been to the finals of the Competition.

Sibs :@Fifa
I’m not underating the team. Yes in 2008 two teams went to the finals from our group but the other 2 teams in the group did not offer competition to the finalists. All the 4 teams (2010) in our group were on form hence the group was tight. I agree with you that Zambia has been growing in the past years but we still failed to get past the group stage.
The boys worked hard and proved that the were good team plus the Coach must be commended for his selection. Otherwise i’m also for having the team moving forward and getting a notch over this Angola outing.

With HR’s team, 2 Zambians are in the CAF team, which Zambian was in the 2006 team?

I’m not underating the team. Yes in 2008 two teams went to the finals from our group but the other 2 teams in the group did not offer competition to the finalists. All the 4 teams (2010) in our group were on form hence the group was tight. I agree with you that Zambia has been growing in the past years but we still failed to get past the group stage.

The boys worked hard and proved that the were good team plus the Coach must be commended for his selection. Otherwise i’m also for having the team moving forward and getting a notch over this Angola outing.

Fifa :@chamz The 2008 Afcon with our local Patrick Phiri we finished our group stages with 4 points but we never qualified to the quarter finals ,this time around Angola 2010 we finished the group stages with 4 points but topped the group.HR hasn’t done anything extra ordinary in 14 yrs.Its just that this tym around luck was on our side.If he jad finnished the group stages by morethan 4 points i would have said yes

We finished the last Afcon with 4 points for sure but remember Egypt had qualified and had nothing to play for in the last game we drew 1-1 with them and don’t forget we lost 5-1 to Cameroon and people were laughing at us that we were playing like Sunday School kids. We got 3 easy points against Sundan who lost all their game. It is wrong to compare our last group in Ghana 2008 with the one we had in Angola.

This group we were in Angola was tougher than last time thats why we had three teams tied on 4 points. The issue is not about points the real matter is qualifying a team to the next round. Would P.P have come out of this group thats the question you need to ask yourself ?