Young Africans Sports Club, on Monday fired its coach Luc Eymael following his discriminatory statements which leaked and went viral on social media. The Club has ordered the Belgian to leave the country immediately. Yanga has also apologized to its fans and all citizens at large for the coach misconduct.
Luc Eymael (born 20 September 1959) is a Belgian football manager and a former footballer who started his professional footballing career in 1975 with the Fleron-based, Royal Star Fléron Football Club with whom he participated in the Belgian Fourth Division and later helped them in promotion to the Belgian Third Division.
Luc holds the UEFA Pro Licence, the highest football coaching qualification. He received the UEFA Pro Licence in 2007 and the UEFA A License which he received on 10 September 2002, from the Royal Belgian Football Association. He is also a graduate from the Federal School of football coaching of Union Royale Belge Des Sociétés de Football Association (URBSFA). He also holds the CAF A License which he received from the Tunisian Football Federation on 5 February 2015.
He has worked with many of Belgium’s current and former footballing stars and has played an integral role in their growth as a footballer, Eden Hazard, Axel Witsel, Logan Bailly, Guillaume Gillet, Christian Benteke and François Sterchele, to name a few.
He began his managerial career in 1999 with Lierneux-based Belgian Fifth Division club, RUS Sartoise.
African Career
In the African Continent he has managed thirteen clubs in the past ten years alone. He started with AS Vita in DRC on August 2010 then in May 2011 went to Gabon to coach Missile club which is based in the capital Libreville.
In June 2012, he moved to Algeria where he was appointed as the head coach of Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 club, MC Oran on a one-year-term contract. Later, in September 2012, due to some financial delays he decided to part company with the Oran-based club.
In April 2013, he moved to Kenya where he signed a short-term contract with Kenyan Premier League club, A.F.C. Leopards. He took charge of the club in April 2013 when the club was struggling at the bottom of the table to avoid relegation to the Kenyan National Super League but by August 2014, the Belgian football manager helped the Nairobi-based club secure the 2nd position in the 2013 Kenyan Premier League, thus helping them qualify for the 2014 CAF Confederation Cup and also helped them win the 2013 FKF President’s Cup.
In September 2013, South African club, Orlando Pirates reached an agreement with the Belgian football manager, but later the deal failed to materialize and as a result.
On January 2014, he moved to Rwanda where he was appointed as the head coach of Rwanda National Football League club, Rayon Sports F.C. During his short-spell with the club, his side participated in the 2014 CAF Champions League where they lost on away goals rule to the Republic of the Congo’s, AC Leopards. He was praised for his impressive work in Rwanda as he helped his side secure 34 points out of 39 in the second leg of the 2013–14 Rwanda National Football League. He resigned as the club’s head coach on 30 June 2014, helping his side secure the 2nd position in the 2013–14 Rwanda National Football League.
In July 2014, he moved to Tunisia where he was appointed as the head coach of Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 club, JS Kairouan. He helped his side secure the 8th position in the 2013–14 Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 which was the club’s best ever performance in the top division of the Tunisia in the past ten years.
Luc Eymael spent eight months working at Polokwane City, he found it struggling and every year lamenting at the bottom halve of the league (precisely between position 16 and 14) fighting relegation battle. The Belgian tactician joined Rise and Shine at the start of the season (2016/2017), helped Polokwane city to end the first half of the campaign in fifth position in the league, the first time the club has reached that high, which made them title hopefuls. He then resigned with rumours citing he is going to join Bloemfontein celtic.
On 24 August 2017, Eymael joined South African Premier Soccer League club Free State Stars, taking over from Sammy Troughton. In 2018, Eymael guided them to their first cup final in 24 years after they beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-0 in the Nedbank Cup semifinal on 21 April 2018, and then took them to their first title, winning the final 1-0 against Maritzburg United.
On 12 November 2018, the Belgian tactician resigned from his position as the manager of Ea Lla Koto following a second straight loss in the league with a 1-0 defeat at home against SuperSport United F.C.
On the 22 th of November Luc Eymael signed a new contract in the premier Egyptian league with Tala el Geish club, and The 1st of June he finished his contract with Tala El Geish . He finished the league at the position number 8 ( best position of the club on the last 7 years ) He managed 20 games he won 8 draw 6 lost 6.
On 1st of October 2019 Luc Eymael signed at Black Leopards in PSL in South Africa.
Luc Eymael resigns from his position with the Black Leopards of South Africa for personal reasons after having classified them in the top 8.[27
On January 9, 2020, Luc Eymael signed on June 10 in Tanzania to Yanga young Africans. One of the most popular clubs in the country.
Facing a possible FIFA Ban
After the controversial rant in which he described the club’s fans as ‘dogs and monkeys’, Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) is intending to take strong disciplinary actions against Eymael, The Federation will also file his case to the FIFA for further actions.
In the rant, he described the away pitches as the standard of seventh and eighth division facilities in Europe and slammed the supporters as ‘educated’ who act like ‘monkeys and dogs’ who make noise without establishing proper criticism.
Eymael suggested that the officiating in the country is favoured to their Dar Es Salaam rivals and revealed he asked the club to sack him because of the alleged poor conditions.
While he praised the fanaticism of the supporters and the number of fans that support the clubs in the region, he complained about not having a car or access to DStv and WiFi.
The Belgian took to social media to apologise for his comments that went viral in Tanzania, citing ‘frustration’ as the reason behind his shocking utterances.
“I want to sincerely apologise to the people of Tanzania, Yanga leaders, supporters and sponsors about the podcast that came out,” he said on Facebook about his utterences.
“Those are not the words of Luc Eymael but of pure frustration and disappointment and emotions that made us lose our second place.”
Despite his public apology, Yanga have already terminated Eymael’s contract with immediate effect.
