A fake Togo team masquerading as the official side played a match against Bahrain earlier this month, according to reports.

Bahrain won the friendly 3-0 but they were surprised by the poor quality of the Togolese team, with the head coach Josef Hickersberger describing the match in Riffa on 7 September as "boring" and "a wasted opportunity". However, it appears Bahrain's opponents were not an official Togo team.

"Nobody has ever been informed of such a game," Togo's sports minister, Christophe Chao, told Jeune Afrique. "We will conduct investigations to uncover all those involved in this case."

According to the Gulf Daily News, the BFA vice-president Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa al-Khalifa confirmed Bahrain went through all the correct channels in organising the match. Shaikh Ali added that all the paperwork received before the friendly were officially signed and stamped from the Togo Football Federation.

The publication went on to report that a letter listed a 20-member Togo team, including each player's passport number and date of birth. However, a completely different list of 18 players was provided by a team official a few minutes before the start of the match.

The Bahrain Football Association said it had been arranged under all the usual official procedures and through an agent they had known for several years.