In Gabon drastic measures were taken.
Gabon lost to Ivory Coast with a 91st minute goal. PDO
The entire Gabon men’s national football team has a picture of the shoe on the back, The Guardian news.
Gabon lost all three of their matches at the Africa Cup of Nations and it was the last straw for the country’s sports minister Simplice-Desire for Mamboula.
– The performance of the “Panthers” in the tournament was so shameful that the government has decided to release the coaching team from their duties, shelve the national team for the time being and exclude Bruno Ecuele Manga and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mamboua declared on TV.
Among other things, Aubameyang, 36, who played in Arsenal and Barcelona, did not take the news warmly.
– I think the team’s problems are much deeper than me as an individual, he wrote in X.
According to the Guardian, the first group game against Mozambique was probably Aubameyang’s last for the national team.
Gabon lost 0–1 to Cameroon, 2–3 to Mozambique and 2–3 to Ivory Coast in the African Championship.
Shelving the entire national team after a failed tournament is not at all unusual in Africa, where national governments often intervene in the activities of football associations. However, the international football association Fifa has tried to eradicate the problem.