One major corruption scandal that has rocked football in the Republic of the Congo has finally reached a dramatic conclusion after a court verdict that sentenced the president of the football federation in the country, to life imprisonment.
Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas, the president of the Congolese Football Federation (FECOFOOT), was sentenced to life imprisonment when he was found guilty of money laundering, embezzlement and forgery in a case that involved close to 1.3 million development money provided by FIFA.
The decision is a huge blow to the long-serving football administrator who had served the federation since 2018 and was at one time considered to be a force to reckon with in the development of football in the Central African nation.
Investigators found out that the money under question was initially given by FIFA to promote two main development initiatives women football growth and building a national technical training centre.
Prosecutors however claimed much of the money did not get to the beneficiaries.
Almost half a million that was supposed to be given to the women national team allegedly did not even get to the hands of the players and officials running the programme.
Club presidents also revealed that in the 2021 COVID-19 relief programme, clubs were only given a sum of 20,000 even when FIFA distributed much higher amounts to clubs.
Officials also investigated approximately eight hundred thousand dollars which had been allocated to construct a national technical training centre in Ignie, which was an area outside the capital, Brazzaville.
The facility is still incomplete and mostly desolate eight years after construction commenced with reports that the facility is in a deplorable condition.
Investigators claim that Mayolas was channeling federation funds into shell companies web in his tenure in office.
The members of his family were also found guilty of being involved in the scheme. His wife and son were found guilty of their involvement in the financial malpractice and two other officials of the federation were sentenced to five years in prison.
The scandal had already received international attention previously. In September 2025, FIFA suspended the general secretary of Mayolas and FECOFOOT, Jean-Claude Wantete, after it was claimed that he had mismanaged money.
The suspension caused a governance crisis in Congolese football and further inquiries by local government into how development funds had been used.
