DRC: Constant Omari leaves his post as boss of Congolese football
Constant Omari Selemani, president of Fecofa, on December 1, 2017 in Moscow.
Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP
Text by: Alejandro Valente
3 min
Constant Omari, 63, resigned from his post as president of the Congolese Football Federation (FECOFA) on June 16, 2021. He had been prevented by the International Federation (FIFA) from running for a new term on the FIFA Council, last March.
A key figure in continental football, he was also vice-president of the African Confederation and its interim president.
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It is a figure of African football who leaves the scene. President of FECOFA, the DRC football federation since 2003, he has to his credit some great successes from the Leopards, in particular the two titles won at CHAN, the African Nations Championship, in 2009 and in 2016, as well as the third place at CAN 2015. On the other hand, he failed to bring them back to the finals of the World Cup, in which the Congo has not participated since 1974, when it was still Zaire.
But Constant Omari made himself known above all as one of the most important leaders of African football.
Closely linked to the former Cameroonian president Issa Hayatou (1988-2017), he had managed to keep his place on the FIFA Council after the latter's electoral defeat in 2017 to the benefit of Ahmad.
He even became interim president of CAF at the end of last year, after the forced departure of the Malagasy, sanctioned by the FIFA ethics committee.
And it was Constant Omari who handed over the presidency to the newly elected South African Patrice Motsepe last March.
"
I'm leaving with my head held high
"
It was his swan song.
Also pursued by the FIFA ethics committee, Constant Omari had to leave his place at CAF, then his post as CAF representative to FIFA.
And now, he left the presidency of FECOFA during a press conference organized on June 16, 2021 in Kinshasa.
“
I'm leaving with my head held high,
” he said with the pride and elegance that are his trademark.
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