Congolese Soccer Team Chases, Punches, And Kicks Ref After Controversial Call

soccer referee holding a soccer ball

iStockphoto / pkripper503


Players from the Congolese women’s soccer team, DC Motema Pembe, are under fire for chasing, punching, and kicking a referee. The incident took place after the referee opted to not award a penalty.

DC Motema Pembe was getting blown out in the game. They were losing 5-1 prior to the violent outburst. The match was being played in Lubumbashi which is near the border with Zambia.

As far as ‘athletes lose their minds’ clips go, this one is very alarming. The clip shows the referee fleeing from his attackers, which are basically comprised of the entire DC Motema Pembe team.

The referee manages to evade the attacking team briefly before being trapped inside of some sort of tent. We can’t see the referee inside of the tent but the DC Motema Pembe team members keep approaching the tent to throw punches and kicks.

Unreal. Arrest them all. Disband the team.

Who are the DC Motema Pembe players behind this referee attack?

Daring Club Motema Pembe, or DC Motema Pembe for short, is a professional Congolese soccer team that’s based in Kinshasa. The club was founded in 1936 and was originally named Falcon Daring.

The men’s squad of DC Motema Pembe has won 14 Congo Cups and was crowned African Cup Winners’ Cup champions in 1994.

The DC Moetma Pembe women’s team is currently ranked 8th in their league, according to SoccerWay. This season they’ve played 8 matches with 2 wins, 5 draws, and 1 loss with a goal differential of +4.

That’s about all I’ve got in the way of DC Moetma Pembe information. There isn’t a whole lot else I can learn about this Congolese soccer team because I don’t speak French, unfortunately.

Fans were shocked by DC Motema Pembe’s actions

After the video of DC Moetma Pembe attacking the referee went viral (thanks to a Barstool tweet), soccer fans expressed shock and disgust.

One person wrote “I need to cancel my trip to the Congo after seeing this.” Another person commented, “this is why African football, excluding likes of Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa… We have a long way to go. Things like these don’t really go well with investors and more so FIFA.”

Another person speculated on the ramifications of an attack like this. They wrote “Man, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have 5 straight seasons of relegations because of this. Refs will be calling everything on them and rightfully so.”

Someone else speculated if DC Motema Pembe will even be able to field a team after all of the individual suspensions are handed out.

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Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. Based out of Florida, he covers an array of topics including NFL, Pop Culture, Fishing News, and the Outdoors.