TOGO’S involvement in the African Nations Cup is over following their failure to appear for their opening match against Ghana last night.

There had been uncertainty over their intentions since the team returned home from Angola after a gun attack on their team bus which left three people dead last Friday.

The Confederation of African Football have been largely silent on the matter amid conflicting reports over whether the team would return to Angola.

But an official told reporters yesterday afternoon that if the west African side were not on the pitch come kick-off for their first game, they would be disqualified from the event.

The Togo players failed to take the pitch for their Group B opener, scheduled to kick off at 1830 GMT, putting an end to any lingering doubt over their involvement in the tournament.

‘‘The referee has received the order to blow the starting whistle and if the Togolese players are not there, they will have lost the match and will be disqualified,’’ a CAF official said.

Reports had suggested Togo filed a formal request to return after a three-day period of mourning but that was denied by CAF.

The CAF official added: ‘‘Togo have not taken official steps to come back and play. We have just heard this rumour in the press.’’ Togo’s sports minister Christophe Tchao was quoted as saying a formal request had been made but Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo later denied they intended to re-enter the tournament.

Houngbo told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘‘We have simply withdrawn our team, it is not a matter of withdrawing for the mourning period.

‘‘The information that has been circulated on some websites saying the players are just back for three days’ mourning and will then go back playing is quite wrong.

‘‘We withdrew our team on the basis they have been the victim of a terrorist attack.’’ Houngbo has also hit out at the way Togo have been treated by CAF, insisting the decision to withdraw was not made in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, but after support from the tournament organisers proved non-forthcoming.

He added: ‘‘Management did not give us enough assurance.

We would leave our team being exposed to similar risks. Therefore we decided to pull our team out of the competition against our will.

‘‘We would have hoped that one could have serene discussion with the host country, with the confederation, to assess what has happened, assess what one has to do.

‘‘We received no co-operation from the confederation in terms of any kind of assessment.

‘‘Our analysis is that they want the shooting to be seen as a non-event and the show must go on as planned; there mustn’t be an official change and Togo is causing problems to the festival.’’ ■ Malawi stunned England’s World Cup rivals Algeria at a near-deserted November 11 stadium as the unpredictable start to the Cup continued.

Algeria began the Group A match as favourites, but were 2-0 down by half-time thanks to goals from Russell Mwafulirwa and Elvis Kafoteka.

Davi Banda added a third after 49 minutes to seal a 3-0 win.