FECOFA: The sports season is playing extratime
A 20-day waiver was granted to the Congolese Football Federation by the Congolese Minister of Sports to allow it to organize the Congo Cup and also to allow the national League 1 championship to run its full course.
Philemon MBALE · Author profile ·
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The DRC’s Ligue 1 national championship will not come to an early end this season. Indeed, the sports season, which was supposed to end on 31 May last, has been extended until 20 June by the Minister of Sport at the request of the Congolese Football Federation. 20 days of derogation that allow the National Football League (LINAFOOT) to be able to organize the return leg of the playoff phase, Final phase of the championship at the end of which the first three ranked clubs will obtain their tickets to represent the DRC at the next CAF Interclub Cups, with the winner of the Congo Cup.
A waiver granted by Minister Didier Budimbu, welcomed by Congolese athletes. «It is true that there is the World Cup with the DRC this year, but we were tired of seeing our championship not come to term every season; with the pace of the matches, this exemption will allow the championship to reach its end and give us a real champion.» We are very satisfied," said sports analyst Richard Kadima.
The dates of the Congolese Cup still unknown
If the schedule for the second leg of the Ligue 1 playoffs was published just after the confirmation granted by the minister, the schedule for the final phase of the Congo Cup, the country’s second major competition after the Ligue 1 championship, is still not known, even though only 18 days of derogation remain. According to internal sources at the FECOFA , this competition, from which will emerge the second representative of the DRC at the next Confederation Cup, is indeed going to take place. A meeting on this subject would have been held on Monday at the headquarters of the FECOFA.
But this organization remains hypothetical because so far, the preliminary rounds have still not been completed in some leagues, such as that of Kinshasa, which still need to determine their representatives for the final phase. It should be remembered that if the final phase of the Congo Cup is not organized, the FECOFA could resort to the winner of the last edition, in this case AS Simba, to play the next Confederation Cup with the club who will finish third in the Ligue 1 championship.