By Osasu Obayiuwana in Lagos
March 3 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has warned DR Congo’s government to stop interfering in its domestic football or face severe sanctions.
The national championship, which ended on a controversial note last year, is yet to resume, following a conflict between the country’s leading club TP Mazembe, FECOFA and sports minister Beaudoin Banza Mukalayi.
Mukalayi ordered league clubs to play in government-owned stadia since last year, whether they owned their own grounds or not.
Mazembe, the former African champions and 2010 FIFA Club World Cup finalist, own a stadium in their hometown of Lubumbashi, which holds up to 18,000 spectators.
The controversial order by Mukalayi, a clear case of interference in FECOFA’s management of the league, led to a fiasco last year when AS Vita, from the capital Kinshasa, bizarrely claimed to have walked over Mazembe in a crucial league game in Lubumbashi.
Rather than turn up at Mazembe’s home ground in Kamalondo, which is the venue for all their league games, Vita went to the city’s old municipal stadium and claimed to have ‘walked over’ Mazembe, which ‘failed’ to turn up there, they said.
An interim committee has now been set up by LIGAFOOT, the DR Congo football league, to resolve the ongoing crisis in the league.
It has been agreed that the current format has been a strain on the finances of most of DR Congo’s clubs, none of whom have the resources of Mazembe. This means a new format will have to be devised and it is expected that clubs with stadia will be allowed to play their games in them, as before.
As far as TP Mazembe are concerned, there will be no compromise on their part.
“The Minister of Sports was ill-advised by some of his colleagues…. All our matches will be played at our stadium, in compliance with the provisions of FECOFA, CAF and FIFA,” says Moise Katumbi Chapwe (pictured), the president of TP Mazembe.
“Mazembe will never play its games in another stadium here in Katanga…”
DR Congo, which is seeking to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, is yet to respond to CAF’s letter.