DRC players arrested as club expelled

Rwanda police arrested Tresor Mputu, captain of Congolese Africa club champions TP Mazembe and teammate Basisila Lusadisu after they assaulted a referee and a security officer during their abandoned Cecafa Kagame Cup match at the Amahoro Stadium, Kigali, on Saturday evening.

The disqualified Congolese team was also expelled from the tournament and the country after scenes quite unprecedented in African football. The Cecafa (Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations) organising committee held a press conference in Kigali at noon on Sunday saying:

“For their despicable act that caused a dangerous security situation, TP Mazembe have been expelled from the tournament. They were on the first available flight from Kigali and as of now are in fact in Nairobi, awaiting a connection back to their home in Lubumbashi.

“Two of their players arrested by police after the match on Saturday have been released and allowed to return home.
“The Rwanda authorities were lenient,” said the secretary general Nicholas Musonye.

Rwanda champions APR were leading the African champions by a 35th minute goals by Twite Kabange when an incident prompted by a disputed offside call, got Mputu’s temper flying.

He attempted, first to kick the referee and then to slap the touch judge. Ethiopian referee Zekariah Girma showed Mputu the red card for that insolence.

Regarded as perhaps the finest player on the African continent, Mputu’s action stunned a packed stadium, the 24-year-old turning from a hero to zero, his claim of being a role model for millions of youth in the continent, all of a sudden, being seriously questioned.

Mputu chased and kicked to the ground, referee [Girma]. Lusadisu attacked a security officer who entered the pitch to try and calm things down.

The Congolese club were guests of the tournament at which they were also present last year and were also involved in an almost similar incident when they were surprisingly eliminated in the semi-finals by El Mereikh of Sudan in Khartoum.

Musonye said Cecafa believed TP Mazembe had reformed after the caution in Khartoum last year but added: “Apparently their bad attitude had not changed. Here they believed they were too good to even trail to APR and the mayhem they caused was the ugliest I have ever seen.

Unfathomable

“Mazembe are very lucky. The security forces of Rwanda were very restrained. If these players had attempted to do such a thing in many places elsewhere in Africa, the repercussions would have been unfathomable,” Musonye said.

He said that a video on the incident had been prepared and Cecafa would write to CAF (African Football Confederation) to report the matter.

“This is not a CAF competition but the matter impacts on the general discipline of players and clubs in the continent. I hope CAF can help us to instill good manners and fair play in the game in our region.”

“But on our (Cecafa) part we took a firm and decisive action, asking TP Mazembe to leave Kigali within 12 hours.
“The criminal act of attacking a referee and a security officer was left to the Government authorities to deal with and they saw it fit to reprimand the culprits after arrest and allow them to leave for home with the rest of their contingent.

“Cecafa have consequently severed all relationship with TP Mazembe as this was the second time the Congolese club showed bad attitude in our competition.

“We highly appreciate and thank the security forces of Rwanda for behaving professionally during the mayhem, because if they had responded irresponsibly, the situation could have got out of hand.”

Eliminated Group ‘A’ team, Djibouti Telkom, were re-instated in the tournament and now the fresh quarter-final pairings are: