Adebayor blames his temporary retirement on hefty hotel bills

Emmanuel Adebayor has blamed the Togo Football Federation for his short-lived retirement from the national team.

The Arsenal striker said a lack of professionalism by officials left players with hefty hotel bills to pay.

Adebayor missed last month's World Cup qualifying defeat in Zambia before returning to score four goals in a 6-0 win over Swaziland.

He said the squad often has to report to airports as much as 10 hours before a flight because of poor organisation.

"Can you imagine staying at the airport for five, six, seven, even 10 hours doing nothing?," Adebayor wrote in the program for Arsenal's Premier League match against Tottenham on Wednesday.

"And the federation president never travelled with the players or stayed in the hotel with us.

"When the game's finished, who was going to pay the bill?

"Sometimes some of us players had to do it, and sometimes when I've not been there the players have been in the hall of the hotel for two or three hours ringing around all of Togo, asking where they could get the money to pay the bill."

Adebayor, the key component in Togo's efforts to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, said he rescinded his retirement after a personal call from the federation's president.

Togo's sports minister Antoine Folly said last month that Adebayor refused to fly to Zambia without the president, delaying the entire team by a day.

They eventually departed without the Arsenal striker.

"Things worked well," Adebayor said.

"I'm glad that things changed so quickly. The president and everyone else now understand how to treat the players and make sure that we're in the right condition to have a great game."

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