The leopards of the Democratic Republic of Congo are canines less, and no longer are they frightening. They were slashed in Algeria, a CHAN, without even using their nails on any of their opponents. A 3rd elimination in a row, tough it is about CHAN, after the 2021 AFCON debacle where they sank in front of a very average Aubameyang’s Gabon during the qualifiers. Then the setbacks during the play-offs for the last World Cup against the 4th team of the World Cup in Qatar 2022, Morocco Atlas Lions. Ongoing half-mast humiliations for a country which tries to emerge from purgatory where it was cloistered, through the genius and under the magnanimous impulse of Mukwatombolo, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo. Addiction having been an easy game, it is towards Coach Otis Ngoma that the next stone will be directed and identify him as responsible for the failure. He pays the price for his excessive arrogance since he indicated that he was going to Algeria to win a third medal, in CHAN of course, after the success recorded at the inaugural tournament in 2009 in Côte d’Ivoire and another in Rwanda 7 years later .
Apogees reminiscence of yesteryear achieved by Mokili Saio, Kalala Mukendi, and later by Kakoko, Ndaye, Kibonge, Mafu and others, are still relevant, for lack of new exploits. Yet it has been ages and generations since these successes took place, while some countries which had always been trodden to the ground rub shoulders with the leopards pads with no fear of receiving fatal blows. At FECOFA, leaders are unable to set up a private financing project for the improvement of sports facilities and development. They are waiting to be rescued by the government. Since this same state wants the funds to be accounted for, they run, hurriedly to FIFA and claim state interference in football affairs. The same FIFA sends a team of auditors from PriceWaterHouse & Cooper every year to audit its member federations books. In all likelihood these are less inspired and idle leaders.
Like a wimp, in Annaba, DRC had showered with a cold shower in front of thousands of Congolese, African and world viewers. They were dumbfounded by the poor appearance like a horror movie. Annaba’s nightmarish evening will be the umpteenth death knell. Warnings have never been evaluated, analyzed, researched and investigated to come up with a gourd of delicious prey for the leopards. The specter of Algeria has sufficiently demonstrated the limits of a leadership without a storefront at the FECOFA level, and the inability of leaders to think of football differently. The implementation of an independent body is worth it to deal with embezzlement by an incompetent FECOFA.
It is about time to brainstorm in order to establish a benchmark for the resurgence of Congolese football. Football in the DRC has long remained an entertainment game; elsewhere it is a huge business in which exorbitant amounts of money are exchanged. It is the second lucrative business after drugs and cocaine (in the world). DRC remains poorly organized football wise. Football authorities look for handouts from the Government to assist them. Football does not develop through the Government financial inputs. Under other skies, a panel of experienced footballers and experts in many areas related to football, get together to come up with a planning and prepare for competitions that will take place in 10 years. In DRC, workshops and seminars are hosted, and attended by men with exaggerated weight masses. This is where “pregnant” men pride themselves on their overweight to the detriment of the Congolese youth happiness, thanks to funds embezzlement that were intended for the training of the youth through various sports activities. The idleness of this youth is the result of the criminal behaviour perpetrated by white collar criminals. Shame on Them! Unable to think intelligently, they always resort to quick fix solution with the sole aim of perpetrating stealing. The disorganization of a league adds misery to poverty. As long as DRC does not get rid of multiple stumbling blocks that hinder the blossoming of the talent that it abounds, this country will move backwards “footballistically” speaking. The new class is called upon to lay the groundwork for a better tomorrow starting with the creation of football development indicators.
Football Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Major sectors of professional football in the world and the difference between professional teams major industries set the stage for research at club level. They confirmed the growing need for actor-managers to demonstrate good governance and strategic management. The maturity and professionalization of the football industry is a change that has been brought about by internal motivations for growth as well as external events including scandals and serious crises. They have led football organizations to recognize its growing economic, social and even political significance. This tsunami of upheaval does not make DRC unassailable; it must set to work to creating new links of thought. Brexit is the perfect example of football being considered as a vector of growth, the spin-offs of which contribute to economic development in England. That is to say, once out of the European Union, non-English players would have had to leave England, for lack of the advantages they enjoyed before Brexit. England was obliged to renegotiate with the EU so that players continue to play in England and pay taxes into the treasury coffers. As long as in DRC the leaders do not support the argument that the recognition of professional football clubs and bodies as commercial entities to generate the funds, the country tends to drift. Clubs are owned by individuals without a board of directors; they manage them the same way they do the accounts of their small shops – in and from their pockets.
No club in Congo has a stadium, and the use of municipal stadiums is common, apart from the glaring lack of infrastructure for training. The fact of never having organized a major tournament – AFCON or CHAN, bears testimony to the feverishness on behalf of sports leaders. Today football, which has become a science, is learned at school – in well-structured academies. It is no longer a game for entertainment; it is pure business. The rest of Africa is in the process of following in the footsteps of the evolving football world while in clubs leaders in Kinshasa as elsewhere in provinces, it is always the fierce struggle to be at the forefront with the sole motive of stealing, looting and plundering.
Globalization is not the prerogative of economies alone. It is a noun that is also embedded in the experience of such a large and important body as the Congolese Federation of Football Association – FECOFA. It shall play its score like no other. Faced with a growing and formidable cynicism, efforts harshness to renew the confidence of the Congolese people in the revaluation of Congolese football and to print its letters of nobility shall reflect the staking of new narratives, paramount to ensure the accountability of such a body. This paradigm shift must take place at the head of this national football management body in the DRC, it takes on assertiveness whose echoes will resound in the various government departments. African governments are fighting unemployment on several levels. According to the World Bank, young people represent 60% of all unemployed Africans. In North Africa, the youth unemployment rate is 25%, but the rate is even higher in Botswana, the Republic of Congo and Senegal, among other countries. The State should not take on the related challenges alone; football is a major player in the absorption of youth unemployment.
Congolese are obliged to dream of making football one of the revenue-generating human activities; football touches the whole planet and generates a huge market. DRC must implement a mechanism that shall ensure the involvement of the private sector in the development of football. Investments, TV rights, player prices and derivatives are exploding today. Why is DRC lagging behind, and it has been for ages? Making football a major sector of sports development in the DRC is a reality. This is how a new class of managers of renewal was born in the DRC, but they have no control of the dire situation. It has an extensive program of youth development through football whose benefits, through the contagion effect, will reverberate in other sports, including basketball, volleyball and boxing. The achievement of this program will allow the DRC to become a regional and African sports power, it is the new class of leaders leading dream. This dream only becomes achievable when they arrive in FECOFA offices. It will be necessary to carve out a geopolitical football strategy which lies in the creation of a large football academy and a training center in order to train and detect future talents. This strategy does not require the financial resources from the government. The latter will play its part by passing laws to guarantee the participation of the private sector in this process. This is Corporate Social Responsibility, and the DRC has many companies in all the nation’s development sectors.
In the context of private sector involvement in the development of youth football to limit the financial inputs by the DRC government, this sector needs guaranties to get on board. Operators in the private sector shall have their backs covered and guaranteed by a legislative and judicial arsenal. In the mining sector, which brings wealth in the DRC, a certain percentage will have to be deducted from the turnover of each foreign company in the extractive sector, for national football development. Once this sector agrees to make this sacrifice, the Congolese parliament will have to pass laws to solidify their involvement. These laws will allow them to enjoy certain advantages, in this case the reduction of the tax on income or turnover, a grace period to be granted to pay taxes and other duties, levies and rights due to the State by staggering. The tax to be paid by the private sector will have to be set at the preferential rate in order to allow this sector to exist, and by the same token, employing more local workforce. The Kabongo law relating to football (sport) contains nothing concrete to encourage mining, especially, to come on board sports resurgence. It is sad to note that for such a potentially rich country, Vodacom sponsors Linafoot up to 500,000 U$ per season for 16 teams. Such an insult is unbearable because the Linafoot champion pockets 100,000 US. A mediocre amount; the same telecommunications company sponsors two major South African teams, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, to a certain extent – 2,800,000.00 US each. Comparatively, the PSL (Premier Soccer League- Professional League) pays monthly 150.000, 00 US to each all 16 teams. Each PSL team has at least two sponsors: technical and financial. What about the DRC? Nay! In South Africa, the state does not subsidize football but it guarantees the hosting of major competitions.
It is a duty for Congolese to dream of making football one of the revenue-generating human activities; football touches the whole planet and generates a huge market. The DRC must implement a mechanism to ensuring the involvement of the private sector in the development of football. Investments, TV rights, player prices and derivatives are exploding today. Why is the DRC lagging behind, and it has been this way for ages? Making football a major pool of sports development in the DRC is a reality. This is how a new class of managers for renewal was born in the DRC, unfortunately they are in leading positions. This new class has an extensive program for youth development through football whose benefits, through the contagion effect, will reverberate in other sports, including basketball, volleyball and boxing. The achievement of this program will allow DRC to become a regional and African sports power; it is a dream dearest to this new crop of mangers. This dream only becomes achievable if these managers are appointed or elected to sit in FECOFA ExCo (Executive Committee). It will be necessary to carve out a geopolitical football strategy which lies in the creation of a large football academy and a training center in order to train and detect future talents. This strategy does not require the financial inputs by the government. The latter will play its part by passing laws to guarantee the participation of the private sector in this process. This is Corporate Social Responsibility, and the DRC is full of many companies in all development sectors of the nation to accomplish the new venture.
The new FECOFA intelligentsia will become the “backbone” to provide the DRC with a football management body that would suffer from little or no ambiguity and disputes. Proven expertise in many areas related to football is a giant step towards the accomplishment of the mission. It takes an arsenal of knowledge and skills from seasoned people for major inventiveness; the latter will become inherent in new methods and processes. They will be used to implement another management vision for FECOFA, a new deadline for achieving objectives. This will allow FECOFA to break with the painful past it has known in all areas of support for its existence. In the context of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), the merchandising of private sector companies shall enjoy a certain visibility in social networks, in and around stadiums and especially during the broadcasting of big games. It is this sponsorship that needs an organization that is authentic. Good referees, matches that start on time and the good quality of the broadcast of Linafoot games are the prerequisites. The highlights of which can be sold to other stations or shows, so they must be of unfailing quality, using trustworthy equipment. The scum that the whole country is used to is a big shame!
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