Tanzanian club Young Africans (Yanga) on Monday announced that it had sacked its Belgian coach Luc Eymael after he allegedly used derogatory terms to describe fans.
Eymael was recorded going off on a rant calling fans in Tanzania dogs and comparing them to chanting monkeys. He also complained about the state of the country’s pitches, the officiating by the league’s referees and a failure of the club to meet its pledges.
Eymael alleged that match officials were biased towards Yanga’s rivals, Simba, who won this season’s league 16 points ahead of them.
Eymael added that he also wanted the club to let him go after the conclusion of the final match saying that neither he nor his wife was enjoying their stay in the country.
The comments were made on Wednesday after Yanga drew 1-1 against Mtibwa Sugar in the penultimate game of the Vodacom Premier League.
Yanga released a statement saying it was saddened by the comments attributed to Eymael which were discriminatory and inhumane.
“…the leadership of Yanga club has decided to sack coach Luc Eymael with effect from today, July 27, 2020, and to ensure that he leaves the country as quickly as possible,” the statement the club’s acting secretary Simon Patrick read in part.
The club went on to apologise to the country’s leaders, the Tanzanian Football federation, fans and stakeholders of Yanga and all Tanzanians for the unfortunate incident.
“Yanga values and believes in values of discipline and humanity, and is against any form of racism.”
However, Eymael told BBC Sport Africa that his actions were triggered by a fan of a rival club.
“I was provoked by a fan from our rivals Simba and I apologised on Friday for my comments,” he said.
The Tanzania Football Federation said that it will take action against Eymael over the incident and also refer the matter to FIFA for further action because it believed that he might repeat the same in another country.
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