The former Cameroonian international Samuel Eto’o has told Africanews that he regrets a decision by French clubs not to release their players for the qualifiers of the African Cup of Nations, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Eto’o was in the French city of Lyon to receive a Doctorate honor from the Lyon Business School for his works in his country and in Africa. Africa News  caught up with him after the ceremony.

Africa News: ”The news is obviously that of the new President of the Confederation of African Football, South Africa’s Motsepe. You have congratulated him. Is he someone that African football needs? What do you think he will bring?”

Samuel Eto’o: “Look, it’s been a few days. The president is here. Let them work. And then you will see. But he is someone who loves football, he has worked in his country. He has a football team for several years that works very well. Let’s now see what he will bring at the continental level. We wish him well.”

Africa News: ”There are African teams that will be at the front in a few days. There is a kind of controversy now about the fact that some clubs will not be able to release their players to go to their respective countries. How do you react to this?”

Samuel Eto’o: “I would like to understand. I think that the real problem is not in Africa because we will see, the problem is rather in Europe now, depriving its national teams of their players. I would say that if I were president of a federation, I would take measures that will not allow these players to play in clubs. But as I am not and I remain just a football lover, so I look at it without having too much force.”

Faced with this situation, the Senegalese Football Federation, which has many players in France, has requested the intervention of the French Football Federation. The last two days of the CAN qualifiers will be held from March 26 to 30.

Source: Africa News

Samuel Eto’o enjoyed a glittering playing career which spanned 13 clubs and a whopping 22 years – but it wasn’t without its controversy.

The Cameroon superstar is best known for his trophy-laden spell with Barcelona, helping the Spanish giants to win three La Liga titles and two Champions League triumphs.

After five years at the Spanish giants, he joined Inter Milan in 2009 where he won the coveted European crown for a third time – this time under the guidance of Jose Mourinho.

Short spells in the Premier League soon followed, with Chelsea and Everton among the 13 professional teams Eto’o represented during his memorable career before he retired in 2019.

And so, to celebrate Eto’o’s 40th birthday on Wednesday, Mirror Sport takes a look back on his incident-filled career…

Guardiola bust-up – and sensational Messi claim

Eto’o has never shied away from speaking out – and he previously aimed a sensational dig at former Barcelona colleagues Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi.

With Guardiola at the helm between 2008-2012, the Catalan club were considered arguably the greatest club side of the modern era, winning three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and countless other honours.

But Cameroonian striker Eto’o felt his own role in their stunning run was underestimated and declared himself the man who “made Barcelona win”.

In an astonishing swipe at his former boss, the ex-Chelsea man blasted Guardiola for not understanding his squad and said Messi was far from the player he is today.

“Pep Guardiola has lived his whole life in Barcelona, but in the years I spent there he didn’t understand the squad. He didn’t live the life of our group,” Eto’o told beIN Sports.

“I said to Guardiola: ‘you’ll apologise to me because it’s me that will make Barcelona win – not Lionel Messi’.

“It was the situation back then. Messi would come later.

“You can ask Xavi, Andres Iniesta and all the others – that was my era. It was me that made Barcelona win and Guardiola would ask me for forgiveness.”

The criticism of Guardiola doesn’t stop there, either.

Eto’o helped Guardiola win his first Champions League as a coach in 2009, scoring the opening goal in the 2-0 win over Manchester United.

But the striker was ultimately forced out after just one season playing under the Spaniard – and it seems there was no love lost between the pair.

“I first of all reminded Guardiola that he’d never been a great player,” he said in an interview with beIN Sports .

“As a coach he had proven nothing, he didn’t even know the story of the dressing room.”

“S***” Mourinho criticism

The Eto’o and Mourinho friendship is a strange one.

Before leaving Barcelona, the Cameroon star claimed he would never play under the Portuguese manager – only to then join him at Inter Milan a matter of months later.

The pair had an infamous bust-up following Barca’s 4-2 second leg defeat by Mourinho’s Chelsea in the last-16 of the Champions League in 2005.

After the defeat, Eto’o is believed to have told the boss: “I know you are a great person and a great coach. But in truth you are just a s***!”

But a respect soon blossomed between the pair and the striker played a starring role in Inter’s historic Treble-winning 2009/10 season, which included a memorable Champions League win.

Eto’o has since spoken of how he preferred Mourinho’s more personal touch as a manager over the approach of Guardiola.

The Cameroon legend is one of the few footballers fortunate enough to say that they played for both legendary bosses, turning out for Guardiola at Barcelona and later Mourinho at both Inter Milan and Chelsea.

When it comes to Mourinho, Eto’o said that the Portuguese is a much warmer figure than he is often portrayed as.

“Jose is, firstly, a friend,” said Eto’o.

“He’s a person who’s upfront and when he doesn’t like something, he tells you. We both have strong temperaments and we understood each other well.

“He’s one of the best people I have found in football. People try to present him as controversial, but it’s a lie. What happens is that life, and football, is hypocritical and they prefer that to having honest people.

“Mou is a top guy. The other thing is that he only cares about the result. It’s his way of seeing football and in that sense he is the number one. Beating him at his game is impossible, you can never beat him.

“He’s a winner and a born leader. He spoke to you with the right words. He’s great.”

A 13-club career

Few have enjoyed a worldwide tour like Eto’o.

Beginning his professional career with Real Madrid in 1997, the striker failed to make the desired impact at the Bernabeu and was shipped out on loan to Leganes, Espanyol and Mallorca.

A permanent move to Mallorca followed in 2000, after an impressive loan stint, and it was there where he showed off his goalscoring prowess on a consistent basis.

Barca soon took notice and swooped for the Cameroon star – and he became a influential figure in a team which featureed the biggest stars in world football including Thierry Henry and Messi.

He then left Spain for the first time in his professional career, moving to Italy with Inter, before a switch to Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala followed two years later.

Eto’o then fulfilled a lifelong dream by moving to the Premier League, first to join Chelsea in 2013, before a one-year stint with Everton.

He then left England to return to Italy with Sampdoria, before ticking another country off his list by moving to Turkey to spend three years with Antalyaspor and a further season with Konyaspor.

The striker eventually brought the curtain down on his career with a final hurrah with Qatar SC.

Thirteen clubs in six countries, not bad going for a striker who is widely regarded as one of the greatest African footballers of all time.

Not only did the striker enjoy a memorable club career, but he also starred for his country.138225411899

After earning his first cap for Cameroon one day before his 16th birthday, he went on to score 56 goals in 118 appearances for his nation.

He helped his country win Olympic gold at the 2000 Games in Australia, while also starring as they won the Africa Cup of Nations the same year and two years later.

Eto’o was voted African Player of the Year four times, a joint-record he holds with Manchester City legend Yaya Toure.

Culled from Irish Mirror

In a case of abusive breach of contract, world football governing body FIFA has ordered the Francophone dominated Football federation FECAFOOT to pay 316,000 Euros (207283360 FCFA) to Clarence Seedorf, the former coach of the Indomitable Lions, whose dismissal it considered unfounded.

FIFA stated that the Cameroon Football Federation should pay the applicant within 30 days from the notification of the decision, the said sum of 316,000 Euros as compensation for breach of contract, plus 5% interest from 29 May 2020 until the date of actual payment.

The 45 year-old Clarence Seedorf as well as his deputy Patrick Kluivert, were dismissed from their positions as Cameroon coaches on 16 July 2016, after the Africa Cup of Nations fiasco in Egypt.

The ruling CPDM criminals running Cameroon Football Federation blamed Seedorf and his staff for what they painted as a “premature exit” from the Africa Cup of Nations after the Indomitable Lions were eliminated from the competition by Nigeria.

In August 2019, the Dutch technicians had filed a complaint with FIFA for “unfair dismissal” and were claiming 1.3 billion FCFA from FECAFOOT.

This is not the first time that the consortium of crime syndicates in Yaoundé has been ordered to pay compensation to a technician after an “abusive dismissal”.  The corrupt football men and women in French Cameroun have a well established reputation of separating from those they hire abroad through fraudulent contracts and kickbacks to compensating them afterwards.

FECAFOOT paid the sum of 500,000 Euros to Arie Haan, former coach of the Lions. In 2012, the French coach Denis Lavagne had his contract interrupted by former Minister of Youth and Sports Adoum Garoua and he also received a good fortune.

In November 2015, the German technician Volker Finke obtained 327.5 million FCFA from FECAFOOT after an amicable settlement. His deputy, the Ghanaian Ibrahim Tanko, for his part received 124.450 million CFA francs.

In 2017, Hugo Broos a Belgian coach was paid 94 million FCFA. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are aware that these French speaking FECAFOOT officials orchestrate all these dismissals in order to get kickbacks.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai 

Ajax’s Cameroonian international goalkeeper Andre Onana has been suspended for one year for doping, the Dutch club said on Friday.

The club said in a statement Onana had “mistakenly” taken his wife’s medicine which had led to the banned diuretic Furosemide appearing in his urine.

Ajax said they had hoped Onana would receive a shorter ban because the substance was “arguably” not a performance booster.

“On the morning of October 30, Onana was feeling unwell,” the club said in a statement.

“He wanted to take a pill to ease the discomfort. Unknowingly, however, he took Lasimac, a drug that his wife had previously been prescribed.

“Onana’s confusion resulted in him mistakenly taking his wife’s medicine, ultimately causing this measure to be taken by UEFA against the goalkeeper.”

Ajax added that UEFA had stated that Onana, who has played 18 times for Cameroon, had no intention of cheating and said they will appeal against the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“We had hoped for a conditional suspension or for a suspension much shorter than these 12 months, because it was arguably not intended to strengthen his body and thus improve his performance,” said Ajax’s managing director Edwin van der Sar, the former Manchester United goalkeeper.

It is the second major setback this week for Ajax who admitted Thursday that they had made a “huge” mistake in failing to register record signing Sebastien Haller for the remainder of their Europa League campaign.

The Franco-Ivorian striker joined the club from West Ham in early January for a club record 22.5 million euros ($26.9 million) and ought to have been included on their Europa League roster but somehow was overlooked.

Source: AFP

The Biya regime in La Republique du Cameroun is currently opposing the provisional executive committee of the Cameroon Football Federation to be chaired by Senator Albert Mbida.

On 2 February 2021, an extraordinary session of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) was held via a videoconference and it dealt inter alia with the consequences of the arbitral award rendered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 15 January 2021.

The 51 members participating in the said session, out of the 74 of the General Assembly reportedly set up a Provisional Executive Committee chaired by Senator Albert Mbida.

Cameroon Concord News understands the Provisional Executive Committee was constituted for a period of three months and has the main task of managing the day-to-day affairs of the Cameroon Football Federation, to revise the statutes, the electoral code and organize an electoral process that is fair, equitable and transparent.

By some strange happenstance, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji reacted to the FECAFOOT zoom meeting by ordering all regional governors to ban all FECAFOOT meetings not loyal to ruling CPDM backed interim president Seydou Mbombouo Njoya.

According to the corrupt regime in French Cameroun, the convening of the said meeting is “contrary” to the CAS ruling of 15 January 2021 with particular reference on point 255.

As a reminder, on 15 January, CAS annulled the electoral process that led to the election of the current executive of FECAFOOT.

In its ruling, CAS gave FIFA, the world football governing body the responsibility to set up either a new normalization committee or to maintain the current executive committee until a electoral process is organized.

Due to the African Championship of Nations tournament, which brings together 16 African national teams without their stars playing outside the continent-a dress rehearsal before the African Cup of Nations, FIFA decided to maintain the current executive of the Cameroon Football Federation by promising to “strictly” supervise its “exceptional mandate”.

This “exceptional” mandate is limited to “tasks” allowing and ensuring “continuity” of current affairs and those related to the finalization in the “short term”, of the process of adoption of the required statutes and regulatory texts and the organization of new elections.

By Rita Akana

A stone’s throw from the Moungo, the river that in part marks the separation between the English and French-speaking regions of Cameroon, light armored vehicles and trucks full of soldiers have been on the lookout since the beginning of the African Championship of Nations (CHAN).

This tournament, which brings together 16 African national teams without their stars playing outside the continent, is a dress rehearsal before the African Cup of Nations (CAN), the flagship competition of African soccer scheduled for January 2022.

It is the first major international soccer tournament organized in the world since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. But beyond the health restrictions gauging 25% of the seats, 50% from the semi-finals, the great challenge for the organizers is that of security, in this country in a situation of war on part of its territory.

For the past four years, the English-speaking regions of the Southwest and Northwest have been plagued by a bloody conflict between armed groups demanding the independence of these English-speaking areas and the security forces. The violence has resulted in more than 3,000 deaths and more than 700,000 displaced persons. Civilians are caught in the crossfire and are victims of crimes and abuses by both sides, according to international NGOs and the UN.

Some armed groups have vowed to disrupt CHAN. So along the banks of the Moungo, which was also the symbol of the reunification in 1961 of Cameroon under French and British mandates at the end of the First World War, police and military forces were considerably reinforced.

A state of alert

As the qualification phase for the quarter-finals draws to a close, fears are growing in Limbe, the capital of the Southwest region, which will host one of the semi-finals, as well as in Buea, the training site for some of the teams.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, as the Zambia-Namibia match in Limbe approached, the towns on the road from the resort to Douala were almost deserted.

Armed separatists, dubbed Amba Boys passed ‘ghost town’ orders where they ban activity every Mondays.

Since the opening of CHAN, ghost towns are decreed every day and match eve in Limbe. Usually very lively, the small towns of Tiko and Mutengene, between Buea and Limbe, had closed down on Wednesday.

On the road as in Buea, light armor patrols criss-crossed the town with machine guns ready to fire.

In Molyko, the boulevard that cuts Buea in half, lies the burnt body of a car. Four other charred wrecks still lie on the road to Limbé.

Military convoys are sometimes targeted by IEDs, improvised explosives placed along the roadside.

Bomb

In November, suspected separatists attacked a school in Limbé, setting fire to two classrooms and forcing teachers and students to undress.

Descending the mountain to Limbé, as in some ultra-secure areas of Buea, life appears more normal, however. Clusters of schoolchildren and high school students return home after a day of classes. Shops and bars fill up.

But in Limbé, when the matches are approaching, fear is very present.

On Tuesday, “everyone took cover after a bomb exploded,” which did not cause any injuries, not far from the stadium, says Harris, 19, still in shock. “Just to be on the safe side,” the soccer fan did not go to Zambia-Namibia as he had planned.

From a security standpoint, everything is going well,” said Southwestern Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai on Wednesday at halftime of Zambia-Namibia, which was attended by about 1,000 spectators. “We haven’t had any incidents that would have disrupted our program,” he said.

Source: Africa News

Ahead of the football tournament the African Nationals Championship in Cameroon, one initial incident forced Cameroonian authorities to impose strict security measures in the North-West and South-West provinces to ensure the games will go on.

The Cameroonian defence and security forces are particularly vigilant in the English-speaking regions, especially in the South-West, where the African Nations Championship (CHAN) is taking place until 7 February.

After the fire in front of one of the training stadiums in Limbe – allegedly caused by separatists on the eve of the tournament – Joseph Beti Assomo, the minister in charge of defence, decided to strengthen the security measures for CHAN 2021, introduced on 8 January.

Armoured tanks, pick-up trucks and heavy weapons

Under the leadership of a trio made up of Air Brigade General Benoît Eba Eba, commander of the second joint military region, General Elias Toungue, commander of the second gendarmerie region, and Colonel Séverin Eyenga, commander of the 21st motorised infantry brigade based in Buea (South-West), the personnel deployed on the ground have been reinforced and distributed around the host cities, hotels and stadiums.

The troops are supported by an armoured tank and pick-up trucks equipped with heavy weapons. Five checkpoints have been set up around the Limbé stadium and the presidential guard dogs have also been made available to detect dangerous objects. In the Fako department, the prefect has banned the use of motorbike taxis – which are the preferred mode of transport for the separatists – until further notice.

Biya’s commitment

Beti Assomo has informed President Paul Biya of these new provisions. On 15 January, the Head of State had guaranteed the officials of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) that measures would be implemented to ensure the success of the tournament.

However, not all bets are off. While no major incident has been reported so far, a bomb did explode on 26 January near the Rwandan team’s training camp that wounded three on-duty policemen. After the first round, Limbe is expected to host a quarter-final match and one of the two semi-finals of the tournament.

Culled from the Africa Report