Did FIFA turn a blind eye to alleged misappropriation at FECOFOOT?
Although world football's governing body has lifted FECOFOOT's suspension, doubts are mounting over how lax its oversight has been.
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Will Congolese football ever be rid of its scandals and power struggles? Since the suspension was lifted, FECOFOOT has issued a statement denying that the U20 national team is taking part in the Toulon tournament, stressing that it alone is authorised to enter a national side into an international competition.
As for FIFA, its disciplinary committee has handed provisional suspensions until 2 August to former members of the ad hoc committee: William Bouaka, who served as chairman, Oumar Djim, then vice-chairman, Fred Tino Geryl Mandounou, the former general secretary, and Wilfried Bruno Monka, the spokesman.
Read also: FECOFOOT: embezzlement of COVID funding intended for women's football?
The four men are accused of breaching a FIFA regulation (article 70) and face several years' suspension from all football-related activity.
Irregularities in funds allocated to the canteen and restaurant at the Ignié technical centre?
While this development fits logically within an investigation led by the disciplinary committee, since the ad hoc committee was never officially recognised by FIFA, the governing body's ethics committee has also been brought in over recent months over alleged misappropriation of funds within FECOFOOT.
On top of the suspicious use of grants allocated to women's football during COVID, reported by Sport News Africa, fresh allegations have been made concerning the use of other FIFA funds, notably for the Ignié technical centre and in particular its canteen and restaurant.
Likewise, a number of invoices with no supporting documents, or issued by fictitious companies, feature in the complaints submitted to FIFA's ethics committee, which will decide in the coming weeks whether or not to open an investigation.
If it does, some of the officials could be provisionally suspended while the investigation runs, notably president Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas and general secretary Badji Mombo Wantete.
Forgery and use of forged documents?
Every year, FIFA prides itself on auditing each of its member federations. Yet the audits in question are never made public and are sometimes buried when things go wrong, notably in Guinea, where president Bouba Sampil was eventually ousted by his own executive committee.
Read also: Bouba Sampil dismissed, a page turns for Guinean football
Meanwhile, the failure to honour the protocol signed in September 2022 between the Ministry of Sports, CAF, FIFA and FECOFOOT raises serious questions in Zurich, as do the unsanitary conditions at the Ignié technical centre and the failure to deliver certain projects. Hence a legitimate question: how could FIFA turn a blind eye to, or fail to look more closely at, the invoices logged with fictitious companies?
According to our information, the Congolese justice system has opened an investigation for forgery and use of forged documents, while FECOFOOT's executive committee is trying to restart football activity at local level.