Cameroon may be barred from participating in the forthcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The country is involved in a legal battle with kit company Le Coq Sportif after terminating their contract.

A Paris commercial court has ordered the company to continue to produce kits for the Indomitable Lions, a ruling backed by FIFA. There are concerns in Cameroon over a legal battle that could see the Indomitable Lions miss the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

 Fecafoot – the Cameroon Football Federation – are reportedly having a showdown with kit and equipment supplier Le Coq Sportif.  The Paris commercial court intervened in the dispute and ordered the squad to wear Le Coq Sportif shirts at the World Cup.

Complete Sports confirmed that FIFA supported the ruling and urged Le Coq Sportif to continue supplying their equipment to the country. FIFA was possibly angered by Fecafoot earlier decision to terminate the French kit company’s contract and partnering instead with One All Sport, an American company.

Cameroon’s lawyer, Barrister Ntimbane Bono, in a chat with Actu Cameroon, stated that the move could get the country expelled from the forthcoming World Cup. “A refusal to execute the decision by Fecafoot could lead to the disqualification of Cameroon from this World Cup, which one should not forget it’s a FIFA activity.”

Cameroon are in Group G with Serbia, Switzerland and Brazil. The Indomitable Lions are scheduled to face Switzerland in their first game of the tournament on November 24.

Source: Complete Sports

When Andre Onana plays in goal for Cameroon at the World Cup it will be exactly one year since his return from a drugs ban that he is still struggling to bounce back from.

The 26-year-old spent nine months on the sidelines after banned diuretic furosemide was found in his urine.

He took his wife’s prescription medicine, after looking for an aspirin to quell a headache, and his explanation was accepted on appeal when the ban was cut from a year to nine months.

“A stupid mistake,” he has said, although adding: “There is little humanity in football. We are obviously not allowed to make mistakes and are treated like robots. A hard lesson.”

The incident brought an abrupt halt in January 2021 to a career that was blooming at Ajax Amsterdam where he was fast establishing himself as one of the best keepers in Europe.

Onana has not played nearly enough football since.

Ajax used him sparingly on his return in November last year when it was clear he was not going to re-sign for the club, looking to run out his contract to move elsewhere.

He joined Inter Milan in the close season but played second fiddle to Samir Handanovic in Serie A while being fielded in the starting lineup in the Champions League.

It was with Ajax in Europe’s elite club competition that Onana had come to prominence, an integral part of the team that went from the early preliminary knockout rounds to the 2019 semi-finals, before a dramatic elimination by Tottenham Hotspur.

“A natural talent, an unbelievably brilliant athlete,” is how former Ajax coach Erik ten Hag described him.

Onana started out in Samuel Eto’o’s academy before moving to Barcelona’s La Masia aged 14. The Spaniards sold him to Ajax in 2015 when he was only 18 and a season later he was in the first team, going on to play more than 200 times for the Dutch giants.

His international career was slow getting off the ground with Onana turning down a call-up for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals, seeking to put club before country, and missing out as the Indomitable Lions proved surprise winners.

That, however, was quickly forgiven and he has played at two Cup of Nations finals since and, once he was back from the drug ban, made some telling saves to help conclude Cameroon’s successful World Cup qualification.

Source: Reuters

Cameroon, one of the five teams that will represent Africa at the 2022 Qatar World Cup  this month is warming up, aiming at making the continent proud.

Cameroon, with its football national team Indomitable Lions is an African country lying at the junction of Western and Central Africa.

Its ethnically diverse population is among the most urban in Western Africa.  The capital city of Cameroon is Yaoundé, located in the south-central part of the country.

The country’s name is derived from Rio dos Camarões (“River of Prawns”)—the name given by the Portuguese explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Cameroon have appeared in the finals of the FIFA World Cup on eight occasions, the first being in 1982 where they drew all three group games and finished in 17th position.

The country’s best performance at the world cup was in 1990, where they staged one of the most famous winning runs from an underdog. They made it through to the quarterfinals beating Argentina, Romania and Colombia along the way before being defeated 3–2 by England.

In 2010, they were Africa’s best hope, but they did not advance past the group stage, Cameroon qualified in 2014, and have again made it in 2022.

Did you know that

In the 2002 finals, Cameroon players were refused to wear sleeveless shirts.  FIFA considered Cameroon’s sleeveless shirts to be vests but not shirts which a player is required to wear under the FIFA Laws of the Game.

Earlier on, Cameroon had worn the shirts throughout the 2002 African Nations Cup and won the title. To meet the FIFA standards, the team found a nearest shop and acquired body tight shirts with sleeves and completed their first option.

Also in 1994, when Cameroon’s famous player of all times Roger Milla played his last match against Russia.

He was 42 years and 39 days old, a record for the oldest player at the World Cup that was surpassed in 2014 by Colombia goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon who was 43 years old.

Milla is also the oldest player to have scored a goal at the World Cup.

This time the team will be coached by Rigobert Song, who is also a former professional football player. Song was appointed as Cameroon’s head coach in February 2022.

Renowned for his defensive skills during his playing career, Song holds the record of the most capped player in the history of Cameroon’s national team with a total of 137 appearances.

The Indomitable Lions, housed in pool G will play Switzerland, Serbia and Brazil.
To achieve this, Cameroon should rely on its strong men of the moment. According to FIFA, the top scorer of the CAN 2021, Vincent Aboubakar will be the anchor of the Lions in Qatar and Zambo Anguissa, the player to watch.

Cameroon has some players to watch in all corners like Andre Onana, Collins Fai, Vincent Aboubakar, Karl Toko Ekambi and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.

Culled from Ktpress.rw

Coach Rigobert Song announced on Sunday a list of 26 players for a pre-FIFA World Cup friendly against Jamaica.

The list is entirely made up of home-based players, who will camp from November 2-10 and play Jamaica on November 9.

Song wants to include three local players in the final squad for the FIFA World Cup and hopes that the game will help him make the right selection, according to football analyst James Ndiba.

“This will be a farewell game before the Indomitable Lions leave for Qatar, so everyone is surprised and asking why Song is testing local players on the eve of the world’s major football tournament,” Ndiba said.

“But I think it is the right thing to do if he must select the correct home-based players. We already know the performance of most of the Cameroonian players playing professional leagues out of the country,” he added.

Cameroon has been drawn in Group G with Switzerland, Serbia and five-time world champions Brazil. The Indomitable Lions will kick off their group stage against Switzerland on November 24.

Source: Xinhaunet

FECAFOOT held a spectacular Ballon d’Or ceremony Saturday night to honor local female and male footballers.

The ceremony held in the capital city of Yaounde was attended by nation’s football legends, government officials and diplomats.

“This is an incredible football event for Cameroonian football and will bring local players to the limelight,” said anti Anglophone and controversial Ernest Obama, spokesperson of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT).

Football legend and the FECAFOOT president Samuel Eto’o said the ceremony marked “a turning point” in Cameroon’s football which is undergoing “a clear revolution” under his leadership.

Souaibou Marou, playing for local side Coton Sport of Garoua, won Cameroonian Ballon d’Or 2022 in the male category, while Monique Ngock, playing for local club Flight FF, won in the female category.

By Xinhuanet with additional editing from Cameroon Concord News

Cameroon’s most prominent football fan has his sights set on travelling to Qatar to cheer on his Indomitable Lions at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

For more than 40 years, Ngando Pickett has supported his team through good times and the bad, attending 16 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournaments and two world cups.

KEEP READING

“I just love football and my country,” said Pickett, who stopped going by his real name Henri Mouyébé when friends nicknamed him after the late American soul singer Wilson Pickett because of his similar dance moves.

Pickett, who played amateur football in the 1970s, told Al Jazeera that he first started supporting the Indomitable Lions in 1982 when he was a student living in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.

“Cameroon had come to play a university competition in Ivory Coast. We were just 10 Cameroonians in Yamoussoukro, but I mobilised them to go support the youth football team,” he said, adding that he was able to see his country win its first AFCON trophy two years later in Abidjan.

Years later, Pickett caught the eyes of Cameroonian officials attending the 1998 AFCON in Burkina Faso because he had covered his body and clothes with paint that matched the green, red and yellow of the country’s flag.

“I was the topic of discussion on the sidelines of the AFCON because nearly every media [outlet] that came to cover the competition took images of me, including most French outlets,” he said.

Joseph Owona, Cameroon’s minister of sports at the time, was so impressed with Pickett that he asked him to take on an important role for the club.

“He said he had met a wonderful Indomitable Lions supporter. He decided to make me the mascot of the team,” Pickett said, adding that Owona helped him go to the World Cup in France that year.

“I really enjoyed a cultural night we had around Notre-Dame Cathedral with seven other Cameroon fans,” he said. “We were in a mini-dance competition with some other nations’ fans and we beat them with our displays. We were given a big carton of champagne. From there, wherever we went, they knew the Cameroonians had come with their exciting dance moves.”

Dancing on the side

When Pickett isn’t cheering on his team at games, the father-of-two earns extra money entertaining at local events with Cameroun O Mulema, a dance group he founded in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala.

“We perform at parties, marriages and official events, especially in Douala,” he said. “We travel to other parts of the country when invited. People know me, so I don’t find it difficult.”

He said the money he earns from performing goes to pay for his children’s education.

“I have to do this in periods when we don’t have football competitions,” Pickett said. “It is not easy, but I have been doing it for years now.”

Word Cup hopes

But football is Pickett’s true love, and he is anxiously waiting to hear from the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) to see if he can attend the World Cup in Qatar.

“Fecafoot is very aware of our plan to go to Qatar. They have told us they are working on our travel, lodging and other things. I am very hopeful about it.”

Pickett is also hoping the fan group he founded, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon Supporters Club, will also be able to make the journey to Qatar.

“There are 20 of us who will be taken care of by the Cameroon Football Federation for the World Cup,” Pickett said. “We already started daily practice about a month ago. We are sure of representing Cameroonian fans massively in Qatar.”

High expectations

Pickett has high hopes for his team in this year’s World Cup.

Cameroon is in Group G and will start their campaign against Switzerland on November 24 before meeting Serbia four days later and wrapping up the group stage against five-time champions Brazil on December 2.

Pickett gave a thumbs-up to the job that Samuel Eto’o, president of Fecafoot, is doing and predicted his team will reach at least the knockout stage of the World Cup.

“I believe we’ll succeed in reaching at least the round of 16 because Eto’o is doing everything possible to get the right players,” he said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA