Le Tout-Puissant Mazembe is the only Congolese club still alive in the CAF interclub competitions for the 2023-2024 season. However, for matches played outside of the DRC, the club had to make use of regular flights despite owning a plane, as the Lubumbashi-based club faced restrictions.
After multiple public statements by the officials of the "Corbeaux," the National Intelligence Agency finally granted overflight authorization for the club's plane. On Tuesday, February 27, TP Mazembe's general secretary and manager, Frédéric Kitengie, announced this news.
"Authorization for TP Mazembe, after our heartfelt cry, the ANR has just freed the file, and this morning the Civil Aviation Authority is transmitting the overflight agreement for our private plane. The right to represent the Republic turns in favor of those an individual deems fit to grant. Pity for my country!" he wrote on his account X.
TP Mazembe plays on Saturday, March 2, 2024, against Mamelodi Sundowns in the 6th and last matchday of the group stage of the CAF Champions League. While the overflight authorization for its plane had not yet been granted, an initial delegation out of the 45 people who must travel to South Africa had left Lubumbashi on Monday, February 26 for a layover in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, before joining the South African city of Johannesburg using a foreign airline.
After the match on Sunday, February 25, won by his club against Pyramids Fc with a score of 3-0, Moïse Katumbi, the president of the club, expressed his frustration to denounce this situation: "The team is abandoned by the government. It's as if Mazembe is not a Congolese team. It's been 3 years since the government has given anything to Mazembe. Despite this, we are refused overflight authorization," he stated following this match.
During the first edition of the African Football League, TP Mazembe was forced to play its home games at the Benjamin Mkapa stadium in Tanzania due to logistical deficiencies at the TP Mazembe stadium in Lubumbashi caused by certain state services.
Joseph Bahati
Soccer: TP Mazembe finally obtains overflight authorization for its airplane
InternetKinshasaSports - Long banned from flying over Congolese airspace, the country's only club still in the Champions League will ultimately use its aircraft to travel to South Africa for its final group match against Mamelodi Sundowns.