Political feud hits TP Mazembe

LUBUMBASHI. — The training pitches and classrooms are fit for one of Africa’s most illustrious football clubs, but the political battles rife in the Democratic Republic of Congo have stopped Tout Puissant Mazembe from using their new academy.

The teenagers who are meant to be the future stars of African football are losing weight because food rations have been cut back. Lush grass is starting to grow around the buildings that owner Moise Katumbi, exiled tycoon and key opposition leader, has built on his property in Lubumbashi.

Katumbi took over Tout Puissant Mazembe — which means All-Powerful Mazembe — in 1997 and spent millions to turn it into a continental football force. They subsequently won the African Champions League title three times — though they also had two early wins in the 1960s.

On the political front, Katumbi, the former governor of mineral-rich Katanga province that takes in Lubumbashi, announced he would challenge President Joseph Kabila in elections due in 2016.

But the elections were delayed and Katumbi left the country the same year after being accused of harming state security. He was also subsequently sentenced in absentia to jail for real estate fraud.

The new classes and bedrooms for the Katumbi Football Academy, wholly financed by the exiled businessman, have been ready for a year, but are like a Wild West ghost town.

The club says insufficient money is trickling in to pay for operations since Katumbi went into exile in Belgium.

There has been no shortage of potential recruits for the academy since it opened in 2012 but its predicament has become increasingly dire, according to managing director Regis Laguesse.

The young players are banned from the academy football pitches for “safety” reasons and can now only use the pitch at the Tout Puissant Mazembe stadium.

“Each month, I weigh the players and for the first time in five years they have lost weight because we have been forced to reduce their food,” said Laguesse, a 67-year-old Frenchman, who has trained budding footballers from Abidjan to Bangkok. — AFP.