World sports,and not simply African soccer,now have to face up to the reality that they can no longer presume they are immune from terrorism. On Sunday,even as the African Cup of Nations was set to kick off in Angola,there was rank confusion among the Togo players who survived the attack on their bus on Friday after it entered the volatile province of Cabinda. Three corpses and eight people reported woundedincluding two in intensive careyet the team was being pressured to play on. No right-minded person should blame the Togolese for leaving,just as few blamed Sri Lankan cricketers for fleeing Pakistan after their bus was fired upon in Lahore last March. These are not random attacks. Sportsmen are being targeted by mass murderers. We can no longer hold,as many did after the 1972 killings of Israeli athletes in Munich,that sport is separate,and sport must always go on. Sports are part of life,and now death. The desperate gunmen and bombers now identify sports ability to grab headlines as legitimate targets for their cause. The way that the Cabinda ambush hit global news and kept causing conflicting,confusing accounts showed the nature of modern terrorism and modern communications. Just as confused,some of Europes biggest clubs,the hirers of African stars,were going public. Some were calling their players home,others insisting that if this tournament is sacrificed then any gang of terrorists anywhere in the world could cause sports to be abandoned. The voice I found most credible in all this mayhem was of Emmanuel Adebayor,Togos national team captain. Shortly after being under fire from the bullets for,he says,15 minutes at least,he told the BBC,Were still in shock. If the security is not sure,then we will be leaving. I dont think they will be ready to give their life, he said of the players. We will take a decision that we think is good for our career,is good for our life,and good for our families. Adebayor is no great statesman. But this time,his leadership seemed exemplary. He didnt run,he didnt hide,he apparently helped colleagues who were shot through the stomach and back in seats in front of him. And then,an instinctive man and an intuitive player,he told the news media to give players time to decide their next move. Adebayor is 25 and Togos most celebrated player,a goal scorer who last year was sold by Arsenal to Manchester City for £24 million,or $38 million. It was crass of soccers committee men to put players in this situation. What assurances did FIFA or CAF,the African soccer confederation,have or seek about the safety of the event in the disputed oil-rich,people-poor state of Cabinda? This is the year of Africanisation of soccer. The World Cup will be in South Africa this summer,and FIFA has entrusted its World Under-17 and Under-19 tournaments to Nigeria and Egypt over the past eight months. Sepp Blatter,the president of FIFA,has crusaded for Africa to stage these events. His belief is that soccer is a tool of developing nations,and a developing continent. In 1993,soon after the bombings had stopped wrecking Beirut,Blatter,then FIFAs general secretary,led a movement to rapidly rebuild stadiums in the Lebanese capital and to stage 10 Asian World Cup qualifying matches there. The Beirut experiment,dangerous but worthy,passed peaceably. Now,there can be no turning back from the World Cup in South Africa,either. Johannesburg,where the two most wounded Togo players were airlifted for surgery,is now reassuring the world of its readiness to fight off any outside threat to the 2010 World Cup.The danger within,statistically running at 50 killings a day in South African cities,is at this moment the more troubled situation. But as Togos politicians summoned its players home on Sunday,as families called them by the hour,as clubs who admit their valuable playing assets are out there without terrorism insurance,whatever that is,the fact remains that young players caught up in a horror of horrors have one choice to make. To stay or to go. Adebayor said on his way out to this event: We were born in Africa,so we know what its about. Some people might be afraid,which is normal. I can understand that. That was before he was fired upon. And before he saw the terrorists outside the bus window,terrorists he imagined to be part of the promised security. Until they opened fire.
