DR Congo must now pick themselves up to face Ghana on Sunday
A record seventh appearance by coach Claude Le Roy at the Africa Cup of Nations was back on track Friday amid disarray in the DR Congo camp one day before the tournament kicks off.
While denying a Congolese TV station report that he had quit in protest at poor management of the squad, Le Roy revealed his fury at a chaotic build-up in an interview with French radio station RFI.
“I never announced I was resigning, but I was very bitter to see that all our work had been screwed up (by the crisis over unpaid bonuses),” the 64-year-old coach said.
“It is mad, devastating to wreck a preparation like this, with such a lack of respect. They are talking of players as if they were children whereas they are adults.
“They are competing here (in South Africa) even though it will cost some of them money. Those who play in big clubs lose their bonuses and risk losing their place in the team.
“These players compete here because they are proud to wear their country’s shirt — and we are not talking about bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of euros per player,” he stressed.
Le Roy led Cameroon to the Cup of Nations title in 1988, the same country to second place two years earlier, and Ghana to third place at the 2008 finals. He has also coached DR Congo before and Senegal at the tournament.
Payment rows are a perennial feature of Africa Cup tournaments as players, coaches and officials argue over match appearance fees, win and draw bonuses, and special payments for reaching certain stages of the competition.
We should pay no ear to this attention seeker. As already adviced. A.A should put the boys through high intensity running excercises to boost their fitness levels. Great cardiac fitness is the magic way. ONLY WAY WE CAN WIN AFCON IS IF WE PLAY SWIFT ATTACKING FOOTBALL AND PLAY AT HIGH INTENSITY RUNNING FOR THE WHOLE 90 MINS. NO LOSS OF CONCENTRATION, NO TIRED PLAYERS. AFCON NO BE CHILDS PLAY. IT IS INTENSE!
Ready or not its time to play d game
Running for the whole 90 minutes? You Living Room Coaches are big jokers. It is clear you only make noise here and don’t really know what you talk about. The coaches know better than you folks. The show off must stop now.
watch it man! have you seen the way zambia play? without any talent they could win afcon because of the fitness levels
of katongo and the rest. Ghana has all the talent and skill but we get outrun by a buch of hardworkers. What if we match them on fitness level, who will carry the day?
You refuse to think my friend. Ghana used to always slow down the game which works against european teams buh often fails against some hardworking and aggressive African teams. We won the game against Egypt and Tunisia because A.A has noticed this and has put the lads through tough excercises. I am only encouraging him to continue so we wim the cup whereas u obviously an empty head is calling me a joker???
I am calling for quick offensive play so that “hard working” teams like zambia are not given the chance to RUN back and defend like they always do before our strikers even shoot.
This coach is full of excuses. He’s the same one who said Ghana stadium is the worse one he had ever seen as the grasses were too long.Now is Congo’s turn
I wasn’t the best of his fans when he was coaching the B.S. I particularly didn’t appreciate the way he chose to prepare the semis against Cameroon. Ghana was depending too much on the Essien/Muntari duo, which was the main boost to the team’s attacking fervor. Having being deprived from John Mensah’s servives for this match, he was left with the tough task to find a replacer. But, instead of bringing in someone off the bench, he opted to split the duo, placing Essien in the centre of defense. This, not only entangled the team’s function, but also gave two clear messages, one to each team. The message to the B.S. was that not all the players were to be trusted(and therefore the team itself), whilst the one to Cameroon was that Ghana feared them, especially Eto’o. And Cameroon, was by no means a better team than Ghana back then. The rest is history. Muntari was left isolated on midfield, posing no threat to the opponent and Eto’o passed the decisive assist through a bewildered Essien, for his teammate(i don’t recall the scorer’s name) to score the lone goal. Other than that, i think most people agree that this is a well respected coach in the whole continent, having won the trophy and being regarded as a mentor by many of his counterparts(Renard being one of them). And i’m to think that he wasn’t wrong about the lawn in the Accra stadium. This pitch looked like a pasture
I never blamed him for this statement.
Please where can i watch the afcon?
As far as i know, it is on Eurosport and Eurosport 2. You can look for a live stream, if you have a net connection.
Thankz bro !!!!!!
This is mind games. Work hard against Congo!!!!!
AFCON 2013 on espn3.com (live and recorded) if your internet provider subscribes or is affiliated to ESPN INC.