Democratic Republic of Congo Football Association (FECOFA) president Constant Omari, the longest serving football leader in central Africa, has resigned from his position.
Omari in a televised address on Wednesday said he had fulfilled his task and now its time for Congolese football to have a new generation of leaders.
“After a meeting of the Executive Committee this afternoon I decided to resign as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Football Association,” said Omari.
“I began my reflection on this subject in March 2021, the day after the Leopards’ elimination from next year’s African Cup of Nations qualifiers by Gabon. I told myself that it was time that I could leave the Federation to leave it to another generation and to other colleagues in order to complete the work.”
The 63-year-old has led FECOFA since 2005 and was re-elected to lead the federation in 2017 for a term that has been riddled with corruption.
DR Congo authorities links Omari in relations to swindling of more than £700,000 of government money that was meant to pay for matches involving the national team and club sides in continental competition.
He is also a subject of an ongoing FIFA ethics inquiry relating to a decision to amend the billion-dollar Lagardere TV contract.
FIFA is probing why CAF apparently agreed to buy around $20m of debt owed by a Beninois sports agency called LC2 GROUP to Lagardere Sports, the French company that had been handling CAF’s marketing and media sales until the contract was abruptly cancelled in late 2019.
Under an amendment – signed in early 2019 – to the original 2015 deal between Lagardere and CAF, the latter agreed to pay Lagardere $6.7m for the debt, which relates to outstanding TV rights payments, owed by LC2 GROUP.
