African Football Confederation (CAF) president Issa Hayatou today bullishly defended his organisation’s award of the 2010 ACB to Angola.   In his first major press briefing since the pre-tournament gun attack on the Toglese team bus, he made reference to reports that CAF had received a warning of a terrorist threat to the tournament.   He said: “Do you want us to tell the Angolan government to stop the tournament because a little group put out a release?

“FIFA received threats in Nigeria (before the Under-17s World Cup last year). Did they suspend the competition? No – and I went there despite the threats.”

He added: “Why would I regret bringing the tournament here?” And he alluded to CAF’s instructions to competing teams to travel by air. He said:

“What happened with Togo happened outside the city of Cabinda – nothing happened in the perimeter of the city, which the Angolan government put at our disposal.”

In a wide-ranging briefing, Hayatou also dismissed Malian complaints about “head-to-head” records, not the traditional goal difference, determining knock-out stage qualification, saying: “The regulations were known and agreed before the tournament.”

There have also been complaints that broadcasting rights were prohibitively expensive for African broadcasters. He said that he would “try and arrange a meeting with rights holders” to “see what I can do.”