DORTMUND, Germany _ A long-running pay dispute that plunged Togo's soccer team into chaos finally was settled Sunday after FIFA persuaded the players to abandon a boycott plan and take the field for a crucial match against Switzerland.

"It's settled. It's finished," midfielder Thomas Dossevi said. "We are now going to concentrate on soccer."

He said that FIFA had underwritten guarantees by the Togolese federation that the players would receive their bonuses.

Soccer's governing body was forced to act after receiving reports that the players did not want to board a plane from their training base in southern Germany to the match venue in the central city of Dortmund, FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said.

"There were rumors that they did not want to travel and play," Herren said. "This prompted us to open all contact channels to them to appeal to them to think of their responsibility to football and themselves and their country."

The team, the lowest ranked at the tournament, made headlines last week when coach Otto Pfister stormed out in protest at the player's bonus protest and repeated absences from training. The 68-year-old German returned only hours before the opening match against South Korea after desperate pleas from his squad.

The Sparrow Hawks are fighting for survival in Group G, having lost 2-1 to South Korea in their opener.

Togolese federation spokesman Meslan Attolou said the rumbling dispute exploded anew Sunday when the players demanded the equivalent of euro76,000 (US$96,000) in cash. The government and soccer federation had offered the equivalent of euro46,000 (US$58,000).

Players refused to give details of the compromise.

"We are satisfied," said Dossevi.

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