The former Panthers star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bruno Ecuele Manga have been suspended from the national team, the sports minister of Ghana has announced, as well as the firing of the coaching staff following their disastrous acclaim at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), their bans on veteran players.
Bazoumana Toure’s injury-time winner sent Gabon to a 3-2 defeat at the AFCON on Wednesday against Ivory Coast, the defending champion.
After falling behind the heavyweights Ivory Coast and Cameroon, but also Mozambique, with a third successive defeat in as many outings.
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The government has decided to dissolve the technical staff, suspend the national team until further notice, and fire players Bruno Ecuele Manga and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, according to minister Simplice-Desire Mamboula, who was speaking on Gabonese television late on Wednesday.
The video clip of the announcement was removed from the ministry’s official websites and the channel’s online platforms a few hours after it was broadcast, before it was republished on Thursday.
Following Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to 102nd-ranked Mozambique, which ended Gabon’s chances of reaching the knockout stages, the Council of Ministers reviewed the national team’s performance at the Africa Cup of Nations.
A thigh knock caused Aubameyang to resign from his French side Marseille after that defeat.
According to an official statement released on Wednesday, Gabon’s President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema said on Monday, “This has weakened part of our national identity.
The lack of method and the dispersion of resources, he continued, are two of the national team’s biggest issues.
The president vowed to “restore rigour, responsibility, and ambition in the governance of national sport” with “strong and structural decisions.”
Source: Channels TV
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