Chelsea, Man City sweat on £150M of uninsured African talent in Angola

Premiership's African stars are in Angola uninsured for terrorism, it has been revealed.

The Sunday Mirror says 23 top English-based players, worth about £150million, are playing in the African Nations Cup without insurance cover against acts of terrorism.

Togo withdrew from the tournament yesterday after the machine gun attack on their team bus in Angola on Friday that yesterday saw the death toll rise to four.

But stars like Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Michael Essien and Arsenal’s Alex Song and Emmanuel Eboue are still with their squads in Africa.

The return of £25million striker Emmanuel Adebayor in the wake of the ***** attack is a source of relief to Manchester City. But City’s £14m defender Kolo Toure remains on duty with the Ivory Coast.

A City source said: “The worry is that none of the African teams can afford their own insurance policies. We believe the players have limited cover through FIFA but that only covers a natural catastrophe and not acts of terrorism.”

Chelsea, who have John Obi Mikel (Nigeria) and Salomon Kalou (Ivory Coast) on duty, are in touch with their stars.

A club spokesman said: “We have spoken to them and as yet they have not demanded to be recalled.

“We are maintaining on-going dialogue with the English FA and have been informed by the players that they are talking to their respective countries.

“As well as the safety issues we are well aware of the insurance problems. It’s our belief that England is the only national association to insure their players and it’s down to the clubs to take out sufficient insurance cover.

“But I am not sure that insurance covers acts of terrorism.”