The Gabonese government suspends the national team’s activity, dissolves the technical staff, and suspends Aubameyang

The Minister of Sports in Gabon announced the suspension of the national team’s activity and the dissolution of the technical staff, in addition to the suspension of players Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bruno Ekwele Manga, following the disastrous performance of the “Cheetahs” in the African Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Gabon, which finished at the bottom of Group F, lost all three of its matches, the last of which was to defending champion Ivory Coast 3-2 on Wednesday.
“Given the Leopards’ shameful performance in the African Cup of Nations, the government decided to dissolve the technical staff, suspend the national team until further notice, and expel the players Bruno Ekwele Manga and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang,” Minister Simbelis-Désiré Mambula said on Gabonese television yesterday evening.
Hours after the advertisement was broadcast, the clip was removed from the ministry’s official platforms and the channel’s online platforms, before it was re-published today.
The team’s performance in the tournament was subject to a review by the Council of Ministers following the 3-2 loss to Mozambique, ranked 102nd in the world, on Sunday, which ended Gabon’s hopes of reaching the knockout rounds.
“This has weakened part of our national identity,” Gabon’s President Brice Cloutier Olegy Nguema said in an official statement issued yesterday.
He added, “The national team highlights two main problems: the absence of a curriculum and the dispersion of resources.”
The president promised to take “strong and structural decisions” to “restore rigor, responsibility and ambition to the governance of national sports.”