An assistant coach of the Togo team has been suspended for three years after he took a group of imposters masquerading as the national side to play a match in Bahrain. Last week, Togo's sports federation said it had no knowledge of a friendly that took place between a team representing itself against Bahrain on September 7.

'The organisation, the preparation and supervision of the match were planned by (assistant coach) Tchanile Bana,' the football federation said in a statement. Bana had already been suspended for two years for organising a match in Egypt in July without the knowledge of Togo's sports authorities. The Gulf Daily News reported that a few minutes before the start of the match a completely different list of Togo players was provided by a team official.

The country's sports minister Christophe Chao said after the allegations came to light that he would ask FIFA to investigate. The match was initially seen as good preparation for Bahrain, ahead of the West Asian Football Championships which begin on September 24.

It proved to be a comfortable affair for the hosts though, with Jaycee John scoring two goals for Bahrain, and Ismael Abdullatif adding a third. Bahrain coach Josef Hickersberger said: 'They were not fit enough to play 90 minutes; the match was very boring.

'Basically it was not good for us because we wanted to get information about the strength of our team, especially playing with many of our professionals.'The news continues a sorry year for Togo's national team. There was tragedy in January when the team's bus was attacked by gunmen on-route to Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations. The driver, assistant manager and a media officer were killed in the attack while several others were injured.