Cameroon’s football federation has summoned 44 players from eight different clubs for a hearing next month into alleged age or identity cheating, it said in a statement.

They must be accompanied by their club presidents for an investigation to be held in person from July 4-8, the federation said on Monday.

All are suspected of”false titles (cheating on age and/or identity) and complicity”.

”The parties concerned are invited to appear, assisted or not by their counsel, for their hearing,” the statement added, saying those who did not appear would face consequences.

The hearings are a rare effort in Africa to stop age cheating, or identity fraud, which continues to be a major source of concern for the continent’s football.

Accusations of cheating are regularly made, and many of Africa’s international successes in junior tournaments are clouded by allegations of use of over-age players, but there has been little effort to either investigate it or stop it.

Cameroon federation president Samuel Eto’o, former Cameroon, Barcelona and Inter Milan striker, promised reform of the game in the central African country when he was elected in December.

Source: Reuters

SAMUEL ETO’O has received a 22-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud.

The former Chelsea star, 41, admits defrauding the Public Treasury of £3.3million between 2006 and 2009, while he was at Barcelona.

Samuel Eto’o received a two-year suspended sentence for tax evasion

Eto’o previously blamed his agent Jose Maria Mesalles for the tax evasion – who has also been given a one-year suspended prison sentence.

In court, Eto’o referred to Mesalles as a father figure, saying: “I admit the facts and I will pay, but let it be known that I was a child then and that I always did what my father asked me to do.”

Eto’o has partially repaid the fee he owes and has been ordered to pay a further £1.5m in fines, and Mesalles £776,000.

The Cameroonian failed to pay tax on the income he received from the transfer of his image rights from Puma to Barcelona between 2006 and 2009.

Instead, he taxed the image rights through two companies, one of which was based abroad in Hungary – so did not pay the full amount of Spanish tax required.

And Eto’o previously argued Mesalles was responsible as he looked after his finances.

Mesalles has previous form for fraud and was convicted on criminal charges of tax fraud, swindling and embezzlement after Eto’o brought a civil case against him.

The judge also ruled Mesalles had to pay Eto’o £15.4m in damages – but it was never paid.

Eto’o had a very successful period at the Nou Camp between 2004- 2009, scoring 130 goals in 199 games.

He won the Champions League twice and LaLiga three times. Eto’o was also named the African Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005.

Source: The Sun

FECAFOOT president Samuel Eto’o has reportedly refused centre-back Joel Matip an opportunity to come out of retirement and represent Cameroon at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Matip retired from international duties in 2017 subtly citing the chaos in the Cameroon football federation (FECAFOOT) as his main reason.

Five years on, Fecafoot is now led by Samuel Eto’o, the legendary Cameroonian striker with the chaos mostly subsided and his beloved country Qatar-bound for the World Cup.

Joel Matip has now reportedly tried to unretired in a bid to be available for the showpiece which Eto’o has vehemently blocked but is that decision in the best interest of Cameroon or a show of pride which could cost the Indomitable Lions?

The Liverpool defender was one of the few high-profile players in the Cameroon national team at the time of his retirement and his decision to leave them high and dry was selfish even if justified. It appears that Matip left when the going got rough and is now trying to return now that it’s good again, that’s certainly how Eto’o sees it.

Joel Matip’s desire to rejoin the Indomitable lions is mostly self-serving but so is Samuel Eto’o’s decision to block the 30-year-old defender.

What is best for Cameroon?

The truth is, despite Matip’s dodgy intentions, his presence in the national team will do Cameroon more good than harm and that conclusion should be enough for Samuel Eto’o.

Matip was Cameroon’s best defender when he retired in 2017 and has since developed into one of the best centre-backs in the world, a solid rock at the back for Liverpool.

There’s no other real reason for Cameroon to not want him in the World Cup squad other than pride, albeit justifiable pride but still pride nonetheless which can only lead to a fall.

Cameroon will play against Serbia, Switzerland and Brazil in the group stage in Qatar, all teams with world-class players but will somehow not be competing with their only player of that level.

Matip was a part of the last Cameroon World Cup squad in 2014 where they also played against Brazil who were the host nation, his experience is invaluable.

In summary, Eto’o is right to feel how he does about Matip but in his position of power, the bigger picture should be the highest consideration and Cameroonian football should be his number one priority.

But right now it seems his pride and ego supersedes the need to take the strongest possible Cameroon squad to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Source: Pulse Nigeria

Cameroon, which has played eight FIFA World Cups, more than any other African team, is preparing to set up a training camp in Oman, ahead of the Qatar World Cup.

The team has submitted an official request to camp in Sohar to prepare for the World Cup, which will be held from November 21 to December 18.

A statement issued by Sohar Club said, ‘The Cameroon national team has submitted a request to set up its camp in the wilayat of Sohar, North Batinah governorate, for the World Cup. The team will hold its training camp from November 10 to 19.’

Oman, led by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, is making all the arrangements to open its doors for teams that have qualified for Qatar to hold camps in the sultanate. The move is seen as a win-win situation for both the teams and the sultanate.

An official in the ministry informed that there is coordination with Oman Football Association to attract a few teams to camp in the sultanate to acclimatise before the start of the tournament. He confirmed that Oman has sports facilities of international standards that will help the teams prepare well for the tournament.

Led by coach Rigobert Song, Cameroon has been drawn with Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland in Group G in this World Cup. While the Africans have never faced the two European sides in the tournament before, they have played Brazil twice losing on both occasions – 1994 and 2014.

Source: Muscat Daily

The youngster became an internet sensation after pictures of her covering the Cameroon national team in camp went viral online

Nine-year-old Cameroonian Fleur Randa could be the youngest sports photographer in Africa, if not the world.

Randa became an internet sensation on Friday after photos of her covering the Cameroon national team training went viral after they were shared online.

Drawing inspiration from her father Kendji Nick Lionel, who is also a professional photographer, Randa accompanies her dad as they travel around with the Indomitable Lions while taking quality photos.

Randa became passionate about photography after closely watching and following her father to numerous sports events and learning from him before perfecting the art.

A photo of her sharing her work with the Cameroon players, led by Inter Milan-bound goalkeeper Andre Onana, excited fans online as the Indomitable Lions stars seemed intrigued and surprised by her work.

Source: Goal.com

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