Togo's Football Federation launched an investigation Friday into how a fake team came to represent the country in a game against Bahrain last week. Federation spokesman Richard Solitoko said a number of officials, including the former secretary general of the federation whose signature appears on correspondence with Bahrain football authorities, have been summoned for questioning. Kodzo Samlan denies writing the letter that accepts Bahrain's invitation to play the Sept. 7 international, and has called it a “forged document.” “I quit the interim football federation as its secretary general in May this year so I could not have written that letter,” Samlan told The Associated Press. It's thought that Samlan's signature may have been forged to trick the Bahrain Football Association into thinking the team was a genuine Togo team. Following a lengthy meeting between federation members and Sports Minister Christophe Tchao on Thursday, the Togo federation promised Friday to uncover who was responsible for taking the group of little-known players to Bahrain. It assured the Togolese people and all football fans that its disciplinary committee would carry out a full investigation. Tchao also promised to unravel the mystery of how the fake team managed to leave Togo without government clearance - which is required for all Togo national sports teams. Authorities are believed to want to talk to another man, former Togo technical staff member Tchanile Bana, who was listed as one of the officials accompanying the team to Bahrain in documents shown to the AP by the BFA. Bana was banned from football for two years by Togo's government last month for taking a group of Togo players to a tournament in Egypt without permission. The sports minister has meanwhile said the fake national team was made up of “unidentified players and their shadowy handlers” who belonged to a “mafia group.” Tchao told the Associated Press the team did not have the necessary authorization from his ministry to represent the country in an international friendly. Tchao said a mafia group “aided and abetted them to leave Togo without authorization.”
