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Not since Buckingham Palace took in 1997 has an organisation so badly misjudged the mood of the public.

For the decision by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) - following their Angola 2010 withdrawal after (with two team officials dying) - is simply jaw-dropping.

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In 1982, a 17-year-old African prodigy by the name of lifted the Nations Cup for Ghana - coming on as a sub as the Black Stars beat hosts Libya on penalties.

That was the West Africans' fourth Nations Cup and even in his most pessimistic moments, Pele surely never imagined it would be their last - with the 'African Maradona' sitting out Ghana's loss in the 1992 final through suspension.

So Pele will burst with emotion should his sons Andre ('Dede') and Ibrahim follow his famous footsteps against two-time defending champions Egypt in Sunday's final in Luanda.

has already ensured parental pride in heaps, becoming the first African to hold aloft

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Many spectators attending were surprised to be handed condoms upon entry - with the donors perhaps mindful of how an earlier victory had prompted some Angolans to parade naked through the streets.

Either way, the message seemed to be - "Make love, not war" - which, even though the Ghanaians punctured their hosts' happy bubble, was timely.

For last night, to set up a repeat of their intense World Cup play-off against bitter foes Algeria, .

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Extra spice is rarely needed in knockout football but Sunday's main course - the opening quarter-final between hosts Angola and World Cup finalists Ghana - was given a heady dose yesterday as tempers flared in the capital.

Like other journalists, I was calmly awaiting a Ghana press conference in central Luanda's Hotel Presidente when it all, quite literally, kicked off. Downstairs, it turned out, an accredited Ghanaian journalist was not just being denied access to the conference but also, he says, being hit and kicked by security forces at the hotel.

Losing his wallet in the scuffle, his woes worsened when being briefly incarcerated in a mobile police cell which Angolan authorities have stationed outside the Presidente.

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You know things are a little different when a footballer tells you he's been missing the media - and at any Nations Cup, things tend to be different.

After 10 days or so holed up in Cabinda, with such heavy security following the Togo disaster that the players only ventured out for training, was giddy to be elsewhere.

"I'm very happy to be here, seeing beautiful people like you and my countrymen, because in Cabinda there was nothing," the Wigan man told me here in Luanda, as though he'd been at the bottle.

And his intense wish to stay in the capital was granted

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Anyone fancying a flutter on an African team to do the unthinkable and win this year's may be thinking twice about dipping into their pocket after the first round of matches in the .

So far, little - the tournament's rank outsiders - have managed to muster more points than the combined tally earned by World Cup finalists , , and .

Of course, South Africa-bound are still to play a game in after their Group B opener against was cancelled. (or, seemingly insensitively, 'disqualification' by Caf) followed last Friday's attack on their team bus that left three people dead.

On the pitch, the football has been entertaining, with several shock results, while the crowds and organisation have been reassuringly healthy.

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Like many fans of African football, I'd long been looking forward to this year's Nations Cup in Angola, especially since it seemed the perfect stepping stone to the later in 2010.

But as I landed here in the capital Luanda on Saturday morning, my emotions, like those of everyone else, were totally flat.

To state the obvious, it was impossible to get excited after three people connected with the tournament had died in Friday evening's on the Togolese team bus.

The incident took place in the separate (and separatist) enclave of oil-rich Cabinda, split from the main body of Angola by a tiny slither of DR Congo. Togo's assistant coach and press officer, as well as the Angolan coach driver, all tragically passing away.

Sportsmen are seemingly leading a charmed life at present for no Togo player died on Friday, just as no Sri Lankan cricketers died in last year's terror attack in Pakistan, although as you read this, reserve goalkeeper is breathing with the aid of a respirator in a Johannesburg intensive care unit after taking a bullet in his back.

At the time of writing, it seems the and somehow play on after spending half-an-hour clinging onto their lives as bullets sprayed their bus.

"All the players - everyone was crying and saying their last words because they thought they'd be dead," told the Â鶹Éç afterwards.

"A lot of players want to leave. They have seen death and want to go back to their families."

Like some of his team-mates, he said he was going home but that now appears to have changed.

"It is left to you to decide to stay in a competition synonymous with fraternity, brotherhood, friendship and solidarity," Caf president Issa Hayatou told the Togolese squad in the aftermath of the attack.

But that's not quite the whole story for behind the scenes, both Angolan and Nations Cup organisers have been pleading with the Togolese to stay.

Angolan Prime Minister Paulo Kassoma has promised to beef up security for the matches but how can the Togo squad believe this when they were told in the run-up to the tournament by an Angolan minister that security in Cabinda was 'guaranteed'?

It seems wholly inappropriate to put pressure on footballers who survived a near-death experience to play a tournament, which is the least of their concerns when life was flashing before their eyes, but that is what appears to have been happening.

The pressure has - somehow - worked and Togo's players are now singing a different tune to the one that reverberated around the world in the aftermath of the attack.

"People died for this tournament, others were injured. We can't abandon them and leave like cowards," Alaixys Romao told French sports agency L'Equipe.

"If we stay here, it's for them. But also so as not to give satisfaction to the rebels. Our government doesn't necessarily agree with us but we are determined to play in this competition."

Indeed the Togolese government does not want their players to stay in Cabinda, with the West African nation's prime minister upping the ante by declaring that if the players 'present themselves under the Togolese flag, it will be a false representation'.

While this story has no clear end at present, it's revealing to note that there has never been talk by officials of scrapping the tournament.

This is a ruling body for whom money talks and with about 80% of Caf's revenue coming from the Nations Cup, it's no surprise at all that no political will has been shown to stop the tournament.

Of course, those in favour of continuing will point out that cancelling the Nations Cup will be a triumph for the rebels, with the attack widely attributed to the separatist rebel group Flec, and so the show must go on.

Either way, this tournament that Angola has long been looking forward to - one which was supposedly giving the southern African nation a chance to show a new face to the world after three decades of civil war ended in 2002 - will forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Most newswire reports that I have read over the last few months in the build-up to the 2010 Nations Cup constantly stated it didn't really matter how well Angola's national team do in the tournament, for the country has already won simply by hosting the finals.

Those words seem very hollow now.

Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations in Angola kicks off a momentous year of football, particularly for Africa, but also provides lovers of the tournament with their biennial fix.

For this burst of colour and sunshine amidst the freezing European winter always entertains, delighting both Africans and neutrals with its intoxicating mix of spectacular football, colourful fans and hard-to-believe incidents.

More carefree than the World Cup, more colourful than the European Championships, the Nations Cup has come into its own in recent years - with .

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