The Confederation of African Football has announced that it has launched an investigation into the post-match fight involving players and officials from DRC and Morocco teams at the 2023 Afcon.
The incident occurred just moments after the full-time and was sparked by DRC captain Chancel Mbemba and Morocco coach Walid Regragui.
The confrontation led to a melee between players and officials from both teams that continued as they left the field and went down the players’ tunnel.
CAF has issued a statement on the incident, saying:
“The CAF has launched an investigation against Royal Moroccan Football Federation (“FRMF”) and Congolese Association Football Federation (“FECOFA” following post-match incidents during the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 fixture between Morocco and Democratic Republic of Congo.
“CAF will not make any further comment on this matter until the investigation is complete.”
Reacting to the incident, Mbemba said: “I respect the coach who is a great man. The TV cut the videos, but I have them. I don’t need to swing them. I keep my silence, it’s better, that’s how I am. Everyone knows me, I respect everyone, I don’t need to shoot anyone but God’s justice is there.”
Regragui opened up on fracas, saying:
“I said to Desabre [Dr Congo’s coach]: ‘Bring him back to me, he’s going crazy, he’s talking nonsense. I didn’t like it because it insinuates a lot of things.
“So if he has images other than what we see on television, let him take them out, with pleasure. And he’ll see exactly what happened. And that’s what happened… Before I went to shake his hand, he took me and my assistant to task on the sidelines before the end of the game, he spoke badly to us. And Desabre knows it.
“And at the end, despite that, I’m going to shake his hand and say, “Why are you talking to me like that?” And then he looks away, like “I’m not shaking your hand”. I held his hand, you can see it on the pictures, and he started screaming all over the place.
“I said, “You’re telling it to yourself!” And he’s like, “You called me an idiot!” It’s okay that he heard that, even though I never said it, but by speaking the way he did, he’s implying that my words are racist, it’s dishonest. Since he only talks about religion in his speech, let him be a little honest with himself.”