That takes some doing, since the Congo, as if to prove it can be more democratic than anybody, has no fewer than 221 political parties. At Luluabourg, 49 of them jumped on Tshombe’s bandwagon.

Political pressure on Arsenal has been mounting for months. Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has written to the club urging them to end the ...