Very poor performers for a few years on the continent, the Tout Puissant Englebert Mazembe of Lubumbashi is well and truly eliminated from the Confederation Cup, even before playing the last day of the group stage. With only 3 points in five matches delivered, the crows can no longer hope for anything even if the team manages to beat the Tanzanians of Young Africans this Sunday, April 2, 2023.
At a press conference on Tuesday March 28 in Lubumbashi, club president Moïse Katumbi deplored the absence of the national championship, which makes Congolese clubs less competitive. He said he was still optimistic regarding the future.
“I don’t want to talk regarding my club’s past, the past is the past. Me, I am a man of the future, I am not a man who cries. I am a man who, when there are difficult situations, I have to solve the problem. We should know how to accept, we were organized but we were eliminated. And I think we should attack the real problem, it’s the championship. The players don’t have time to play, there’s no automation, we can’t look for the problem elsewhere, the problem is the organization of our championship. What is the result we expect on all the teams of Congo which play the interclubs, these teams do not have a championship and the latter no longer exists in our country?he lamented.
Contrary to what is said on social networks, Moïse Katumbi reassures that the debacle of Mazembe is not due to a financial problem. The salaries of the players have not been lowered.
“We told you that at Mazembe, we lowered the salaries of the players or the players experienced the delay in payment? We currently support several teams and go ask them. At the academy, we have more than 2000 young people that we support, when I brought the 4 African places to Congo, I was not a governor and currently Mazembe does not have foreign players like in the past”he says.
“I can tell you that the government hasn’t supported my team for two years, all we spend is one person’s money. Make no mistake, it’s not money that plays on the pitch and there is not a single club in Congo that spends a lot of money like Mazembe.”sued Moses Katumbi./letambourde.net