Togo's Football Federation launched an investigation yesterday into how a fake team came to represent the country in a game against Bahrain last week.

Federation spokesman Richard Solitoko said a number of officials, including the former secretary general of the federation whose signature appears on correspondence with Bahrain football authorities, have been summoned for questioning.

Kodzo Samlan denies writing the letter that accepts Bahrain's invitation to play on the 7 September international, and has called it a "forged document."

"I quit the interim football federation as its secretary general in May this year so I could not have written that letter," Samlan told The Associated Press this week.

It's thought that Samlan's signature may have been forged to trick the Bahrain Football Association into thinking the team was a genuine Togo team.

Following a lengthy meeting between federation members and sports minister Christophe Tchao on Thursday, the Togo federation promised yesterday to uncover who was responsible for taking the group of little-known players to Bahrain.

Tchao also promised to unravel the mystery of how the fake team managed to leave Togo without government clearance — which is required for all Togo national sports teams.