Fifa‑banned DRC coach continues to train young players in Kinshasa
A coach in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was banned from football for 20 years by Fifa in March 2023 for sexual abuse of a minor is continuing to take charge of young players in Kinshasa, the Guardian has reported.
Jonathan Bukabakwa, known as Messi, was fined 100,000 Swiss francs after Fifa’s investigation and has previously coached youth teams in the Limpopo and Malabo regions; he was also convicted by DRC authorities and was released from prison last year. Fifa announced the ban in 2023 in a statement that said the decision had been taken “in line with Fifa’s zero tolerance approach to all forms of abuse in football” and added that world football’s governing body “has regularly updated its regulatory framework in recent years to provide greater protection to victims of discrimination and sexual abuse or harassment.”
The Guardian said it had seen several videos showing Bukabakwa coaching a group of young players at Esperanto, a club in the Limete district of Kinshasa, and several local sources confirmed he has regularly been seen taking charge of groups on a school field. “Messi? He’s still coaching, you can easily meet him with his team. He doesn’t hide,” one source who declined to be named told the newspaper.
When contacted by the Guardian, Bukabakwa did not deny that he is continuing to coach young players and said he was unaware of the Fifa ban. “They never told me anything,” he said. “They never questioned me or sent me anything.” He has denied the allegations, the Guardian reported, and Fifa did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
Fecofa president Véron Mosengo-Omba said he had been contacted by the Guardian and promised action, saying in a statement: “We have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour,” and “We will punish anyone involved in this kind of conduct.” Mosengo-Omba, who was elected as Fecofa’s president in May after stepping down as the Confederation of African Football’s general secretary two months earlier, said he would look into the previous cases once he has re-established a disciplinary committee; Fecofa had been under a Fifa-appointed normalisation committee from 2023 until his election.
Bukabakwa was provisionally suspended after media reports of widespread sexual abuse in the DRC in November 2022; he and five other coaches were provisionally suspended by Fecofa at that time. One of those coaches, Donga Epapa Cédric, was sacked by his club JMK after allegedly asking a player to send him photos of his penis; no action was taken against him or the other coaches by Fecofa or Fifa following an investigation that cleared them all due to a lack of proven evidence, and Cédric has denied the allegations.
Mosengo-Omba has summoned Bukabakwa and the president of Esperanto to a meeting on Monday after being contacted by the Guardian, and reiterated the federation’s stance: “We will make sure that no one who is behaving like this will be involved in football in this country,” he said. "It's an absolute priority for us. You cannot accept your country’s name being linked with this kind of behaviour."
