Since June, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) has been without a coach, following Claude Leroy’s resignation after a qualifying match against Cameroon. The Leopards, eliminated from the race for the 2014 World Cup, are now focused on rebuilding their team. While Santos Muntubile, the assistant coach, has been acting in the interim, the Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa) is in search of a new head coach.
Constant Omari, the president of Fecofa, revealed details about the process of finding Leroy’s replacement. “We received a little over thirty applications. We haven’t seen them all yet. What is a priority is to specify how we are going to work on this file. I set up a commission, whose mission is to work on a reform of football policy in the DRC. And there is obviously, in this work, an important place given to the national selection,” Omari explained in an interview with Jeune Afrique.
With the aim of having a new coach before CHAN 2014, Omari mentioned the urgency of the situation. CHAN (African Nations Championship) is a competition in which DR Congo will participate. “What we want is for him to be chosen at the end of December or beginning of January, so that he can attend the final phase of the African Nations Championship, in which the local Leopards, led by Muntubile Santos, will participate. Thus, the new coach will be able to form an opinion on locals likely to join the A team. And I think that we should not wait too long before appointing him, so that he can immerse himself in Congolese football and organize training courses and friendly matches.”
As of now, no specific name has been put forward for the coaching position.
