Ducor Sports brings you a round up of the juicy news bits making headlines around the continent.
Top on the news is the reported ugly scenes that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Total CAF Confederation Cup that saw Morocco’s Raja Casablanca beating DR Congo’s AS Vita Club 3-0 in the first leg of the finals.
Already, the Congolese club is umbraged at the news of an injury purportedly inflicted on one of its players by Raja striker Lajour Mouhssine. The 33-year-old former Sporting Charleroi forward was sent to have an early bath for unsportsmanlike behavior. Mouhssine is believed to have attacked Vita’s midfielder Eddy Ngoyi leaving him with a nasty cut around the lower lip just after the conclusion of the game in Rabat.
Appearing to compound the Moroccan giant’s troubles was their fans’ use of smoke flares which forced a delay of the match at one point. The allegations could trigger probing by CAF into the matter which, if it gets to happen, will see the 3-time African champions incur CAF’s wrath.
West Africa
In Ghana, it has emerged that a former member of the West African country’s FA once warned disgraced FIFA Council member Kwesi Nyantaky about considering resigning just days before the footage of him receiving bribes surfaced.
An attorney, Kwesi is serving a life ban imposed on him by world football governing body having been found wanting of corruption and other charges.
George Afriyie claimed this week he’d asked Nyantaky not to venture beyond his 13-year spell at the helm of Ghana’s Football House to guard his legacy. Afriyie, a football official of Ghana’s Liberty professionals, got sacked after a spat with his erstwhile boss just before the investigative piece was released.
Also making the news in Ghana is the recent feat attained by Egypt-based striker John Antwi. John is the highest-scoring foreign player with 63 goals in Cairo’s top tier league but is overlooked in Ghana’s national team side.
Elsewhere, it doesn’t seem well between the Sports ministry and the Senegalese FA regarding the future of Taranga Lions gaffer Aliou Cisse.
National team coaches are hired by governments on the recommendation of Football Associations. However, the relationship between the two institutions are far from looking smooth after the Senegalese sports minister, Matar Ba, opted against extending Cisse’s coaching contract until he wins the Cameroon Nations Cup. The 42-year-old manager’s deal runs out in June, three months after the end of the events in Cameroon. Senegal exited the previous edition in the quarter-finals losing to eventual champions Cameroon and there’s increasing belief that the Lions can pull off an upset and grab the gong, which means anything below the finals could see the dreadlocked gaffer shown the exit door. Also in the news is the appointment of former Lions senior player Omar Daf as coach of French Ligue 2 side Sochaux.
In another development, Senegal’s Lioness Basketball national team star Yacine Diop won’t be playing for the rest of the season owing to a sustained injury around her knee.
Coming out of Gambia is Boy-Balla’s shock spanking to ‘France’ in a wrestling duel last Sunday. Boy Balla has been unbeaten beginning the previous campaign, defeating three Senegalese sensations which earned him Gambia’s wrestler of the year prize.
However, he fell short of expectations losing to capital-based France from Banjul Saku Ham Ham.
East Africa
Kenya’s Olympic Bureau’s Secretary General Paul Tergat has resigned from his post pending completion of his trial.
Paul is standing trial on allegations of corruption at the East African nation’s upper court.
Also, Kipyegon Bett, an international athlete for Kenya, says he won’t be contesting the doping ban imposed on him.
The 20-year-old refused to send a sample collection, contrary to Athletes Integrity Unit regulations.
Over to Ethiopia, Ghanaian striker Morrison Osei is declared wanted in Addis Ababa.
Police are on the hunt for the forward after he sneaked out of a hotel he was lodged in without paying the bills. According to the center-forward, Ethiopian outfit Coffee SC placed him in this predicament when they terminated his deal following the departure of the side’s Serbian gaffer.
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe’s government is conducting an audit of sports facilities after the majority of sports projects worth millions of dollars in the Southern African nation were neglected.
Tripping to South Africa, Bidvest Wits’ gaffer Gavin Hunt has chastised his big-name players for a sub-par performance which led to their exit in the Telkom Knockout semis to minnows Baroka.
North Africa
Trouble never seems to end with North African clubs as cash-strapped Club Africain today woke up accusing former president Slim Riahi of embezzling and diverting 25M (twenty-five million) dinars belonging to the team for personal use.
The sum, according to the side, wass drawn from match revenues, and contracts to sponsorships – allegations that the politician has denied in an on-going hearing.
The 51-year-old politician -who’d bankrolled the club for five years – suggested weeks ago that there be an appointment of an independent body, with FIFA as observers, to investigate financial troubles at the club for the purpose of transparency.
The world football governing body had earlier given the one-time African champions deadline to pay off arrears of its former players or risk getting deducted 24 points which could potentially mean relegation.
Still in Tunis, Etoile du Sahel have parted ways with coach Georges Leekens, with his deputy Taaufik Zaaboub taking the position temporarily.
The Belgian leaves barely 24 hours to the outfit’s El-Classico with second-placed Esperance du Tunis billed for Wednesday.
A third Tunisian Premier League club Monastir Sports Union is enduring torrid moments over the seizure of its assets by the National Social Security Funds. Ahmed Belli, the side’s president, has already tendered his resignation letter and was nowhere to be seen during the club steering committee’s meeting with the city’s governor to find a solution to issue.
In neighbouring Algeria, premier league outfit JSK Kabylie have filed a complaint to FIFA seeking to have the ban on their chairman Charif Mellal lifted with immediate effect. Mellal has threatened to withdraw his side from the league if the sanction on him isn’t rescinded.
Not much is happening around Egypt and Morocco.
