Cameroon is set to host the African Athletics Championships in 2024.

The central African nation was in line to be the venue for the 22nd edition of the event this year, but it will take place in Mauritius instead.

Those Championships begin on Wednesday and last until 12 June.

Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, the Cameroonian president of the Confederation of African Athletics, said the 23rd African Championships would be held in his home nation.

“Our council decided to grant to Cameroon the African Championships for 2022 when we had our council in Qatar in 2019,” Malboum, 71, said.

“Unfortunately because the agenda was full with the Africa Cup of Nations – and costly – we postponed that event and granted the rights to Mauritius to host the event.

“But now Cameroon is ready to host the Championships in 2024.

“[On Thursday] we spoke about this with the (Cameroonian) minister of sports, and we will bring back to Cameroon the flag of the event.

“This is very important for Cameroonians to know that we are going to host the Championships.”

Cameroon last hosted the African Athletics Championships in 1996, with the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in the capital Yaounde the venue.

Source: BBC

The 26-year-old Indomitable Lion has officially sealed a permanent transfer to the Partenopei ahead of the new campaign

Fulham have confirmed the departure of defensive midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa to Serie A giants Napoli.

The 26-year-old Cameroon international, who featured for the Partenopei in most matches of the just-concluded top-flight season as they finished third on the table, has moved to make his loan move from the Cottagers permanent for an undisclosed fee.

Robbed, attacked and threatened by armed police: The Liverpool fans engulfed in a Champions League final ‘nightmare’

“Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa will join Napoli this summer for an undisclosed fee after the club exercised their option to make his deal permanent,” Fulham confirmed on their official website.

“The midfielder played 30 times this season on loan in Naples, as they secured a third-place finish in Serie A. Anguissa departs Fulham with 66 appearances to his name, and we wish him luck in the future.”

The Indomitable Lion transferred to Fulham from Marseille in August 2018, and was loaned to Villarreal in July 2019 following the Cottagers’ relegation from the Premier League.

He made his Villarreal debut on August 17, playing the full 90 minutes in a 4-4 home draw against Granada. On August 31, 2021, Zambo Anguissa signed a new three-year deal with the Championship club before heading out on loan to Napoli for the 2021-22 season.

At Napoli, he took part in the majority of the club’s Serie A matches, making 25 appearances overall and playing 1,925 minutes. He was selected in the starting XI in 21 of these matches across their 38 fixtures and entered as a substitute on four occasions.

He last featured in a competitive game on May 22, playing just 10 minutes for Napoli against Spezia in a 3-0 victory. In total, the midfielder registered two league assists this season. He debuted in a Serie A fixture for Napoli on September 11, 2021, as a starter versus Juventus aged 25 years and 299 days.

His displays helped Napoli to end the season with 79 points from 38 matches. Luciano Spalletti’s side won 24 matches, drew seven, and suffered seven defeats. They finished seven points behind champions AC Milan, who garnered 86 points while Inter Milan came second with 84 points.

Meanwhile, Fulham topped the EFL Championship table to earn promotion to the Premier League for next season. The Cottagers managed 90 points from 46 matches, while second-placed Bournemouth reached 88 points.

Source: Goal.com

Cameroonian authorities must identify and hold to account the policeman who assaulted journalist Eyong Macdella Bessong while she was covering a May 18 football match in Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region, and should hold accountable the stadium official who manhandled her and asked police to remove her from the property, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday.  

Bessong, a reporter for pan-African privately owned sports news website kick442.com, was accosted and dragged away from the main pitch minutes before the opening whistle by Njonje Mbua, the Molyko Omnisport Stadium’s director, because she could not produce a hard copy of her press accreditation and only had a digital one on her cell phone, according to news reports, kick442.com editor Angu Lesley, and Bessong, who both spoke to CPJ via messaging app and phone. Minutes earlier, the digital copy of her press accreditation was accepted by an official controlling access to the match, those sources said.

Mbua refused to recognize the press pass on Bessong’s phone and insisted that she either buy a ticket or return home to retrieve her physical press pass, the journalist said. She told CPJ that the stadium director manhandled her and grabbed her torso, touching her breast, so she bit his hand, prompting him to order a group of six policemen to remove her from the property.

Bessong said two uniformed police officers, whose names she did not know, grabbed her and tried to drag her away. When a group of footballers recognized her as a journalist and asked what was going on, Bessong explained and pulled out her phone to show them her press card. One of the two policemen mistakenly believed she had taken photos of him and was showing them to the footballers and ordered her to delete them, Bessong said. The policeman then pulled her hair, slapped her at least three times across her face and neck, head-butted her, threw her on the ground, kicked her, and called her a prostitute, she told CPJ.

“Authorities and the Cameroonian Football Association must take swift and decisive action against the stadium official and policeman who humiliated and viciously assaulted sports journalist Eyong Macdella Bessong while on assignment,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “The chauvinism and sexist slurs that female sports journalists endure are bad enough, but to compound these with gratuitous violence is simply intolerable. Journalists must be free to do their jobs without harassment from any quarter.”

Lesley, Bessong’s editor, told CPJ by phone that Bessong, who was running late and was focusing on photographing the start of the match, heard Mbua calling her but ignored him because she didn’t realize that the call was coming from a stadium official. Instead, she believed she was the subject of an unwanted advance, a common hazard for women in Cameroon. Mbua then confronted the journalist, grabbed her and touched her breasts, and began dragging her away, resulting in the journalist biting his hand to free herself, said Lesley. Mbua then summoned the police, who assaulted her, he said

The police officer “slapped me, [head-]butted me, and then threw me to the floor and kicked me,” Bessong told CPJ. “He was talking in French, saying ‘’you prostitute, you are coming to look for customers, you can’t identify yourself, you come to claim you are a journalist, but you’re a prostitute, you think I’m one of those clients, you come and lure men to sleep with you, you come to the stadium and  pretend you’re a journalist, you cannot identify yourself. Bordell [prostitute]’,” Bessong told CPJ.

Bessong said she received medical treatment at a clinic the following day. A copy of a signed medical certificate, reviewed by CPJ, states that Bessong had “generalized body pains, bilaterally swollen eyes, sprain on upper arm and bruise on rt [right] lateral leg following physical assault.”

Lesley said he drove to the stadium after Bessong called him and recounted the events. He said he tried unsuccessfully to intervene with Mbua and another football official to ensure she would be allowed back in to cover the remainder of the match, and only succeeded when he called a top football administrator in the capital, Yaounde, who ordered the stadium director to allow the journalist back in. Lesley said Mbua eventually apologized to him, but not to Bessong.

After the game ended and they were leaving the stadium, Bessong pointed out the two policemen, Lesley said, adding that he warned them not to ever do that again to his worker. The policeman who assaulted Bessong proceeded to insult Lesley, calling him a dog and other “names that I won’t repeat,” said Lesley. 

Mbua, the stadium director, has been summoned to appear for questioning in connection to the attack at the judicial police in Buea on May 31, Lesley said, adding that he did not know the name of the policeman and that he hoped the director would identify him to the authorities.

Contacted by phone, Mbua denied assaulting Bessong and claimed the “issue took place among uniform people.” “I do not have the power to ask a uniformed person to beat somebody, I am not a governor, I am not in the military,” he added.

“I called her three times, but she refused to come,” he said of Bessong. “I went and blocked her, she refused, and I asked her to introduce herself. She held my right hand with her two hands,” he said.

Mbua also claimed that when the police called Bessong to check her accreditation she refused and insulted them and that was when they “held her with force.”

Mbua claimed the subsequent outrage from the media community was because he had refused to let journalists to play a football match at the stadium on Mary 3, World Press Freedom Day. “This is where the problems began,” said Mbua. 

Contacted by messaging app for comment, Ernest Obama, communication director of the Cameroonian Football Federation, Cameroon football’s national controlling body known by its French acronym Fecafoot, said he would respond but did not reply to a follow-up text message. 

Reached for comment via messaging app, Alex Siewe, the communications director for the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the controlling body representing national football associations on the continent, said the group needed more details about the attack before it could comment. A phone call to the Buea central police station was picked up but nobody on the line spoke. National police spokeswoman Joyce Ndjem did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app.

Culled from Committee to protect journalists

Championship side Watford have confirmed the departure of former Cameroon international Nicolas Nkoulou.

The centre defender was asked to leave following the Vicarage Road giants’ demotion to the English second-tier.

In the just-concluded season, the Hornets finished in the 19th position having garnered 23 points from 38 league outings.

Nkoulou featured in just three league appearances and he is now expected to look elsewhere to continue his professional career alongside Andre Gray, Juraj Kucka, and goalkeeper Ben Foster.

“Following the conclusion of the 2021/22 Premier League season, Watford FC can confirm that five first-team players have left the club,” a statement from the club website read.

“Defender Nicolas Nkoulou – who made three league appearances after signing in October 2021 – and forward Andre Gray – who spent the last campaign on loan at Queens Park Rangers – have also departed upon the expiration of their deals.

“We thank the departing players for their contributions and wish them the best of luck for the next steps in their careers.”

The African defender moved to England to become Claudio Ranieri’s first signing after leaving Serie A side Torino.

Prior to his spell in the Italian top-flight, Nkoulou played for AS Monaco, Olympique Marseille and Olympique Lyon.

On the international scene, Nkoulou was part of Cameroon’s squad for the 2008 Olympic Games. There, he helped the squad reach the knockout phase before they were shown the exit door by Brazil.

He made his senior team debut on November 19, 2008, in a 3-2 friendly defeat against South Africa.

Coach Paul Le Guen picked him in his squad for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and then the 2010 Fifa World Cup hosted by South Africa.

Following the suspension of Samuel Eto’o and Eyong Enoh from the Indomitable Lions squad for five and two matches respectively by the Cameroon Football Federation for boycotting a friendly match against Algeria, the defender was appointed as captain of Cameroon on a temporary basis and captained his first national match, in a 1–0 win over Guinea-Bissau.

Nkoulou announced his retirement from the national team after helping the country win the 2017 Afcon.

Source: Goal.com

A sea of legendary African footballers is expected to attend a special soccer game organized in honour of Roger Milla who turns 70 today.

Samuel Eto’o Fils, Rigobert Song, Schout Ajara,  Abdoulaye Traoré, Emmanuel Eboué, El Hadj Diouf, Falilou Fadiga, Mark Fish are among the greats who will pay a vibrant tribute to Roger Milla at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaoundé.

Jules Denis Onana, a former teammate during the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy said football fans have turned their attention to Yaoundé for the event that will be aired via state radio and television.  

Born on May 20, 1952 in Yaoundé, Roger Milla was an exceptional football player who wrote the most beautiful pages of Cameroonian soccer. The African football player of the last century banked 102 selections, 36 goals with the Indomitable Lions, participated in 4 African Cup of Nations winning in 1984 and 1988, 3 World Cups, and 4 goals in 5 matches and took Cameroon to the quarterfinal in Italia 90.

Voted best African football player in 1976 and 1990, best African player of the last 50 years in 2007 by CAF, the old lion Roger Milla is now a roving ambassador and minister for football.

By Rita Akana

The secretary general has confirmed in a letter addressed to his boss that he is leaving his post

The Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) has suffered a huge blow after secretary-general Benjamin Didier Banlock resigned from his post on Wednesday.

In a correspondence sent to his boss, Samuel Eto’o, on Wednesday, Banlock announced he was leaving his post because “Cameroonian football is not on the right direction and refused among other things to be reduced to the “dancer of the President.”

“I have reasons to believe Cameroonian football will only regain its greatness if great me, who carry great ideas, act with greatness in an environment that allows for elevation and progress, in other words, the achievement of great designs,” Banlock explained in his letter seen by GOAL.

“For my part and very humbly, an administration of progress at Fecafoot cannot be reduced to the “president’s dancer “which seems to be your only will,” Banlock continued in his message directed at Eto’o.

“The texts, the good managerial and governance practices, the objectives of federal projects and the results must motivate the decisions, justify the postures, the choices and the commitments.

“Thanks to the Executive Committee of Fecafoot for the trust placed in me but regrets for not being able to work in an environment conducive to achieving performance.”

On December 11, 2021, Eto’o, who played for a host of clubs across Europe, most notably Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, was elected as president of the Cameroon federation.

Almost two weeks after Eto’o took charge of the federation, the former Cameroon captain chaired an emergency committee meeting on Monday, December 27, 2021, via a video conference and he re-appointed Banlock to the post after resolutions were passed.

He came in as an interim in the new Eto’o era having served in the same position in the previous Federation which was under Njoya. Banlock was first confirmed as the federation’s secretary on January 2, 2019, before he was fired by Njoya, on August 2021.

Eto’o was in charge during the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations which the country hosted. However, the Indomitable Lions could not make it to the final as they suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat in the semi-finals against Egypt.

Source: Goal.com

Cameroon’s recruitment drive ahead of the World Cup continued on Monday with FIFA approving the change in international eligibility of former France Under-21 winger Georges-Kévin Nkoudou.

Nkoudou, who was with Marseille and Tottenham before joining current club Beşiktaş, never played for the French senior national team and could make the change to Cameroon under FIFA rules because of his family ties.

The application to FIFA was made by the Cameroonian Football Association, which is led by national team great Samuel Eto’o.

The 27-year-old Nkoudou was named last week in coach Rigobert Song’s preliminary squad for 2023 African Cup of Nations qualifying games in June. The group also included former Celtic midfielder Olivier Ntcham.

FIFA confirmed Ntcham’s eligibility change from France only last week though he had been called up in March for World Cup qualifying playoffs against Algeria.

The Swansea player did not take part in the playoffs as Cameroon advanced on the away-goals rule by scoring in stoppage time at the end of extra time in the second leg.

Cameroon was drawn in a World Cup group with Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland. The tournament in Qatar starts on Nov. 21.

Source:  AP

Cameroon national football team head coach Rigobert Song has summoned a 25-man squad made up of local players for a training camp.

Song made the list public Tuesday night, which comprises players who are plying their trade in Division One Championship in the Central African nation.

“Song wants to give home-based players a chance. This is the first time in the history of Cameroonian football that local players have been called up for training by the head coach. It is expected that the best players will be selected for the preparations of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers,” sports analyst James Mbaru said.

In late April, Song said he wanted better collaboration between local professional clubs, coaches and players in a bid to build a strong national team.

The training camp will run from May 23 to 27.

Source: Xinhuanet

Samuel Eto’o has suggested how Cameroon can do wonders at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar if they follow what Jose Mourinho achieved with Inter Milan when winning the Champions League trophy in 2010.

The 41-year-old, who is currently the President of the Cameroonian Football Federation, was part of the Inter squad under the Portuguese tactician that won the treble in the 2009-10 season – the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia, and their first Champions League title in 45 years.

With Cameroon heading to the World Cup in Qatar where they have been drawn in Group G alongside Serbia and Switzerland, the former Barcelona and Chelsea player believes they can leave a mark at the tournament.

Asked if coach Rigobert Song can lead Cameroon to World Cup glory, Eto’o, who is currently in Italy to announce a charity game in San Siro on May 23, said as quoted by BeSoccer: “I don’t see why he can’t win it.

“I believe that in order to win the World Cup you don’t need to be monsters or aliens, you need good preparation, a strong mentality, and a pinch of madness.

“I won a bit in my career and to do it I gave everything. I always take Inter as an example: no one at the beginning of the 2009-10 season thought we could win [the Champions League] and instead, Mourinho did something crazy, with a group of men and warriors.

“I would like something like that for Cameroon too.”

Cameroon have appeared in the finals of the World Cup on eight occasions, the first being in 1982 where they drew all three group games. In 1990, Cameroon reached the quarter-finals before being defeated 3-2 by England.

The Indomitable Lions will make their eighth appearance at the finals in Qatar 2022.

Source: Goal.com