Robson Sharuko in CAIRO, Egypt
THE only thing Congolese business tycoon has done, linked to the 2019
AFCON finals, is posting a picture of himself on Twitter, seated in his
private jet while holding a ball, and announcing his arrival here on
June 21.
He said he had come to witness the opening ceremony of the 2019 Nations Cup finals, held later on that day at the Cairo International Stadium, just before the Warriors opened this continental football showcase with a date against the Pharaohs of Egypt.
He ended his tweet with a rallying cry, “Go Leopards,’’ the nickname of the Congolese national team.
Two months earlier, Katumbi was shown attending the draw for the tournament, held on the edges of the pyramids, back in the days when he was completing the final months of his three-year exile from his homeland because of political issues.
He has always been a football man, his huge financial reserves and passion for the game reviving the fortunes of TP Mazembe who won three CAF Champions League titles in the past decade and reached the final of the FIFA Club World Cup where they lost to Inter Milan.
He also invested into transforming the Stade Mazembe into a state-of-the-art facility while the Lubumbashi giants also have a number of private planes, to fly them across Africa, and can afford to woo players and coaches from all over Africa.
But Katumbi, who was accused in reports that emanated in Madagascar of having allegedly tried to influence Zimbabwe goalkeeper, Elvis Chipezeze, to under-perform, and give his Leopards a fighting chance to qualify for the knock-out stage of this AFCON finals, is also a controversial character.
Some will say, a genius.
Because, it would have required such quality for him, in the event there is credibility in the reports coming from Madagascar, to know that Chipezeze would be the one in goals given, until the goalkeeper was summoned at the last minute inside the stadium during warm-up, George Chigova was the one set to play.
Katumbi used to be very close to former CAF president, Issa Hayatou, but his relations with the current boss of African football are not well-known.
Some critics accuse that friendship with Hayatou of having transformed Katumbi into an untouchable person, in African football, whose team, TP Mazembe, used to enjoy the patronage of referees to win their matches and tournaments.
Five years ago, the then Zamalek coach Mido went public and accused Mazembe of having bribed Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey after the Egyptian giants lost 0-1 in Lubumbashi in a Champions League match.
“Always, I refuse to give excuses for the defeat, but I think that the referee’s performance was clear for all,” Mido said on television.
“African football will not move forward if the referees’ faults remain like that.’’
A year earlier, South African coach, Roger de Sa, also cried foul after his Orlando Pirates were subjected to hell in Lubumbashi in another Champions League match where the referee gave the hosts two questionable penalties which were both saved by the late Senzo Meyiwa.
“It was a nightmare. I never thought I would experience anything like it during my sporting career,” he said.
“Apart from the two gift penalties awarded to Mazembe — both saved in breathtaking fashion by Senzo Meyiwa — and the inexplicable sending off of our captain Lucky Lekgwathi in the first half, we were under siege as a result of the actions of the referee for the entire match.
“As the match progressed unabated in this same manner, I began to ask myself: “is this really happening? Is it sport?’ And if it is, I’d rather not have any part of it.
“It was almost as though the Mazembe players were waiting for the referee to go out and win the game for them instead of doing the job themselves.
“I instructed the players to avoid tackles whenever possible because they were going to be penalised. Yet somehow we survived.”
Yesterday, Congolese journalist, Jeff Katala, who features on SuperSport football magazine programme, Soccer Africa, said he did not believe the story that someone from h
is country might have tried to influence the outcome of the match against the Warriors.
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