{"id":222833,"date":"2026-01-02T04:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/222833\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T04:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:20:09","slug":"gabon-government-sacks-aubameyang-and-suspends-national-team-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/222833\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabon government sacks Aubameyang and suspends national team \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Gabon\u2019s government have announced the \u200bsuspension of the national team, the sacking of the coach and kicked Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off \u200dthe squad in the wake of three defeats at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/african-cup-of-nations\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/african-cup-of-nations\/\">Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Gabon\u2019s Minister \u200dof Sports announced on television the suspension of the national team after they finished last in their group and were eliminated from the tournament in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cGiven the Panthers\u2019 disgraceful performance \u200cat the Africa Cup of Nations, the government has decided to dissolve the coaching staff, \u2060suspend the national team until further notice, and exclude players Bruno Ecuele \u200cManga \u200band \u200dPierre-Emerick Aubameyang,\u201d said acting sports minister Simplice-Desire Mamboula after Wednesday\u2019s 3-2 loss to the Ivory Coast in Marrakesh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Gabon, coached by former defender Thierry Mouyouma, had already been eliminated after \u2060losing their opening pair of Group F fixtures to Cameroon and Mozambique but \u2060in their final outing were \u20602-0 up over the defending champions before conceding three goals and going down to a second string Ivorian line-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Neither Aubameyang \u200dnor veteran defender Ecuele Manga played on Wednesday with Aubameyang having returned to his French cub Olympique de Marseille for treatment on a thigh injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The former African Footballer of the Year responded on social media, saying on X: \u201cI think the team\u2019s problems are much deeper than the individual I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Aubameyang, at 36, had likely played \u200chis last game for \u200cGabon in their defeat by Mozambique as was also likely the case with the 37-year-old former Cardiff City defender Ecuele Manga.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Disbanding \u200cthe national team used to be a common reaction in Africa to disappointing results but \u2060since world football\u2019s governing body Fifa have taken a hard stance against government interference in the running of football associations, it has been a rare occurrence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall  b-it-article-body__copyright\">(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabon\u2019s government have announced the \u200bsuspension of the national team, the sacking of the coach and kicked Pierre-Emerick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[115043,61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-222833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-african-cup-of-nations","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}