Adebayor's Togo retirement a loss for Africa - Hayatou

Africa's soccer boss yesterday expressed regret at the retirement of Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor from international soccer but refused to discuss his controversial tournament ban on the player's team.

Adebayor earlier this month announced he would quit the national team, saying he was haunted by the attack on the squad bus at the African Nations Cup in Angola in January, in which an assistant coach and press officer were killed.

Togo, shattered by the attack, withdrew from the competition and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned them from the next two tournaments as well as fining them $50,000, causing outrage in that country and elsewhere.

Adebayor, who returned to play for Manchester City after the attack, described the punishment as "monstrous" and called for CAF president Issa Hayatou to resign.

Hayatou refused to discuss the ban at a news conference on Monday, saying he had come to South Africa to receive an honour from the government and not to discuss the events in Angola. "Everything has been said already, everything has been done," he said.

Asked about Adebayor, Hayatou said: "If he refuses to play in the national team, it is a loss but it is his own decision. It is unfortunate...it is a loss for Africa but one cannot oblige him to do what he does not want."

At a news conference in which he seemed to dodge more questions than he answered, Hayatou also refused to say whether he had supported Morocco over South Africa in votes for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. ?

Hayatou, CAF boss since 1988, is in South Africa to receive a national decoration yesterday for bringing the World Cup to Africa for the first time - which might be ironic if he had indeed voted for Morocco.

"The vote is secret. You don't know who I voted for and I don't think you need to speculate," he told a Ghanaian journalist. "You are not as old as my son, you cannot shoot at me like this."