CAF denies presenting Drogba with award ultimatum

AFRICAN football's governing body has denied telling Didier Drogba and Frederic Kanoute that they had to attend last week's African Footballer of the Year award ceremony to have a chance of winning.

Chelsea's Ivory Coast striker Drogba opted not to travel to Togo and Mali's Kanoute, who did go, was declared the winner on Friday. Drogba said afterwards that a Confederation of African Football (CAF) official had warned him the award would be given to Sevilla striker Kanoute if he did not go to Lome.

However CAF communications director Suleiman Habuba rejected that version of events. "CAF have never called Didier Drogba or Frederic Kanoute to tell them that if they did not attend the ceremony they would not get the award," he said. "However, I met Frederic Kanoute because I wanted to tell him that it was very important he came to the ceremony," he added.

Drogba, who won the award last year, told the French sports daily L'Equipe he had received a call from a "prominent CAF official telling me if I did not come to the ceremony, the rules would be changed and the award would be given to the second-placed player, meaning Kanoute.

"Without being disrespectful, I don't think that the attitude of those people honours Africa. If I didn't go to Lome, it was because it was two days before a quarter-final and we have only one goal, to win the cup," he said.

Ivory Coast have reached the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, while Mali were eliminated in the group stage.

Kanoute told the Sevilla website that he too had been told he must attend to receive the award. "It is a complicated story and I don't have to justify myself," said the Mali striker. "He (Drogba] couldn't attend, someone rang him and said if he didn't go he would be second and... everyone has accepted that version. But the truth is they told me the same and maybe if we had still been in the cup I wouldn't have been able to attend the event."

Drogba said he would have sent his wife to the ceremony "but, unfortunately, she was not welcome. I have therefore decided not to be part of the vote for the next African Footballer of the Year award. I feel that the contest has lost its worth. I regarded it very highly," added the striker.