Gabon’s sports minister has announced a sweeping shake-up following the national team’s poor performance at the Africa Cup of Nations, including the suspension of the entire squad, the sacking of the coaching staff, and the banning of veteran players Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bruno Ecuele Manga.
The Panthers suffered a 3-2 defeat to defending champions Ivory Coast on Wednesday, sealed by an injury-time winner from Bazoumana Toure. This marked Gabon’s third consecutive loss in the group stage, leaving them at the bottom of Group F, behind Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Mozambique.
The announcement, initially posted on the ministry’s official platforms, was later removed before being republished on Thursday. The national team’s disastrous campaign was reviewed by the Council of Ministers after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to 102nd-ranked Mozambique, which eliminated Gabon from progressing to the knockout stages. Aubameyang returned to his French club Marseille following that defeat due to a thigh injury.
“This has weakened part of our national identity,” Gabonese President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema said in an official statement on Wednesday. He added that the team’s performance exposed “two major problems: the lack of method and the dispersion of resources.”
The president pledged “strong and structural decisions” aimed at “restoring rigour, responsibility, and ambition in the governance of national sport.” However, the move could potentially conflict with FIFA regulations, which prohibit government interference in the affairs of member associations.
