Gabonese Football Federation (Fegafoot) President Pierre-Alain Mounguengui has been detained after being charged with failing to report alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of children within the sport, according to his lawyer.
Mounguengui was placed in detention on Thursday and faces charges of "failing to denounce crimes of paedophilia" and after being temporarily held in custody, attorney Charles-Henri Gey said.
The newly re-elected head of the Gabonese Football Federation
The "Capellogate" has shaken Gabonese football since the end of 2021. This scandal owes its name to Patrick Assoumou Eyi, nicknamed "Capello", accused of having "raped, trained and exploited" many boys, when he was under-18 coach.
17 years old from Gabon, until 2017, then as technical director of the Ligue de l'Estuaire – the youth championships.
"The network dates back to the 1990s. It appears from this investigation that it would be several hundred victims just for this man who would have also provided other minor players to other Gabonese football personalities", then explained the French investigative journalist Romain Molina, co-author of the investigation, in an interview with France 24.
Pierre-Alain Mongueungui is not the first Gabonese football leader to find himself compromised.
On January 25, the steward of the national team, Serge Hamed Mombo, was apprehended by the Gabonese police when he got off the plane at Leon-Mba airport in Libreville.