DR Congo: banned for 20 years by FIFA for abusing minors, a coach is still coaching

“Messi? He’s still coaching, you can easily meet him with his team, he doesn’t hide.” Jonathan Bukabakwa, known by the nickname Messi in Kinshasa, made headlines in October 2023 when FIFA’s Ethics Committee found him guilty of “sexual violence against a minor” and banned him from engaging in “all football-related activity” for twenty years.

This sanction, accompanied by a financial fine of 100,000 Swiss francs, followed an investigation by Sport News Africa revealing the existence of a pedocriminal network operating within Congolese football for more than two decades. A national, continental, and then global outcry, the investigation identified several coaches and officials who were quickly suspended temporarily by the Congolese federation (FECOFA) before quietly regaining their positions, without any further action.

This did not prevent some from reoffending, such as Donga Epapa Cédric, known as Moyindo, who was suspended and then dismissed from JMK (Jeunesse Montante de Kinshasa) in the spring after asking a youth for a photo of his genitals. No sanctions have been decided by FIFA or FECOFA against him.

A system helping coaches convicted of abusing minors

The only coach to have suffered FIFA’s wrath, Messi was probably the “smallest fish” in the network. Already incarcerated in Makala prison for molesting minors, his past was well-known within the Entente Urbaine de Football de Kinshasa-Malebo or in Lemba, the district where he operated with several other predators including the late Fiston Musa Sabana, known as Baggio, who was beaten to death by various individuals directly affected by his crimes against children.

Upon release from prison, Messi regained his freedom and returned to football with no trouble at all. “It’s a system,” explained a person working with youth in the Lemba district, south of Kinshasa. “When one of them is caught by the police, they manage to get him back into the football world afterwards.” Alain Kandudi, who was among the six coaches initially suspended by FECOFA following the first article, was a perfect example of this, similar to Messi.

The latter thus joined Esperanto club, where he coaches a youth team on the Massamba school field in the Limete district, neighboring Lemba, as evidenced by several videos collected by Sport News Africa.

Failure of the protection system praised by FIFA

Reported by several people, Messi saw the police come onto the field to tell him to be very careful and that he “shouldn’t be there”. Unsuccessfully, since he has served his prison sentence, he continues to coach youth without any problem despite the penalty imposed by FIFA.

With no oversight and accused by several people who testified before its Ethics Committee of having “botched the investigation”, the world football body continues to promote its system to “protect” youth and its supposed “zero tolerance” for abuse or harassment. Marketing slogans: in reality, FIFA has completely failed the victims of sexual abuse, from Gabon to Haiti, via Barbados and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The presence of Jonathan Bukabakwa within Congolese youth football also illustrates the inaction of the various leaders who successively sat on the endless Normalization Committee set up to prepare for the arrival of Véron Mosengo-Omba, Gianni Infantino’s friend when he was secretary general of the African Football Confederation.

Eager to build a new football culture, the new FECOFA president has not yet addressed the problem of pedocriminality even though he has promised concrete actions off the record. This is essential given the scale of the scourge, as publicly reminded by former internationals Papy Kimoto and Youssouf Mulumbu, whose statements elicited no response from FIFA.

“FIFA never told me anything”

Contacted via his phone number, Messi first tried to convince Sport News Africa that he was not the owner of the line but that it belonged to an acquaintance. Swearing the coach’s innocence, he begged to be left in peace.

Upon confirming it was indeed Messi, Sport News Africa was able to obtain the subject’s confessions through several people who spoke to him directly in Kinshasa. “FIFA never told me anything,” said the banned coach. “I am not aware of anything. They never questioned me or sent me anything.”

Although the former prisoner, convicted by Congolese justice, protests his innocence, claiming to have a statement from a family who unjustly accused him, one thing is certain: he has never paid the slightest fine to FIFA—he didn’t have the means anyway—just like most of the other officials suspended for the same reasons.

Even more serious: by accusing FIFA of never having notified him of his conviction, the entire legal process of the Ethics Committee could be called into question. This is not necessarily a surprise since legal department staff has been reduced by more than half since its relocation to Miami.

Depleted, with no real human resources and increasingly politicized, FIFA’s officially “independent” Ethics Committee illustrates how the world body operates: more by major media announcements than by genuine follow-up in the field.

NB: Contacted for comment, FIFA and the Esperanto club did not respond to our inquiries.