Coach Pedro Gonçalves ponders exit due to seven months of unpaid wages

"The problem of wage arrears is not new, but no one has ever known because I never spoke about it. I have seven months of wage arrears and many other expenses to receive, in relation to per diems, gambling bonuses and more. My contract is about to end. My link was the World Cup campaign, therefore, at the end of the campaign, at the end of this month, my contract with the Angolan Football Federation ends," said the coach in Luanda.

Pedro Gonçalves explained that he is now focused on the games against Egypt and Libya and that, afterwards, he will "reflect" on his future.

The selector revealed that, in 2020, he was without salary for eleven months and, as a result, he received and continues, until now, to receive financial help from his family in Portugal, in order to meet his daily expenses. in Luanda.

"During the past year, my employees and I spent almost a year without receiving salaries. It took eleven months and now it's seven, but even so we never stopped working, ever.

Fortunately, I have a family that supports me, and in the face of all the adversity, my family supported me financially and continues to do so so that I can reverse the difficulties faced here. The pandemic crisis, as well as the inauguration of the FAF leadership, seven months after the last elections, delayed the entire process, "he said.

As a result, the coach said he was forced to return to Portugal, where he stayed longer than expected, due to the uncertainty of subsistence in Angola.

"They publicly criticized me, asked where the coach was? I was not in Angola because there was no condition to be here, in the same way with my collaborators. To be here I needed to live. As simple as that" he said.

The coach also pointed out the administrative and financial problems that the governing body of football is facing, as reasons for the consideration he is doing.

"We didn't even do the FIFA date because we didn't have the financial conditions to do it, nor did we participate in the COSAFA Cup because we didn't have the money to buy airline tickets to South Africa, among other situations that we've been experiencing recurrently," he explained.

Regarding the removal of the selection from the race to the 2022 World Cup, Pedro Gonçalves rejected the idea that the campaign had been a failure, highlighting the lack of administrative organization, the financial difficulties in the Angolan Football Federation, the covid-19 pandemic, as well as the belated swearing-in of the current FAF leadership, seven months after the last elections.

"Absolute failure cannot be called a failure, because for there to be failure there must be investment. Did we have the conditions and resources gathered in this journey? We just have to see what the involvement in terms of conditions, resources, even financial, of the four teams was. that we've already faced in our group. Look at what they invested and look at what we've invested. It's absurd to talk about failure," he said.

Pedro Gonçalves also complained about the conditions made available to the national team when traveling to other countries.

"How do our players travel? They travel cheaply and, at times, with a lot of stopovers so that tickets are cheaper. This is our reality in Angola. There are so many bureaucracies to acquire documents [Angolan passport]. Everything. this makes it difficult for some players, evolving in Europe, to join the Angolan team" he concluded.

As for the World Cup race, Angola and Egypt will face off on November 12, in Luanda, in a game of the fifth round of group F. The campaign for the World Cup ends on the 16th of the same month, against Libya, in Benghazi.

The Angolans no longer have a chance of qualifying, as a result of three defeats and one victory, having three points and occupying the last position.

The group is led by Carlos Queiroz's Egypt, with ten points, followed by Libya, which has six, and Gabon occupies third place, with four points.