“Football in Cameroon: the lingering
issues”
Cameroon, also known as Africa in
miniature, is one of the countries in Africa with relative political stability,
until late 2016. By her enormous material and human resources, she is an
economic power in the Central Africa sub-region. Her growing population
estimated about 23 million, are diverse sports enthusiasts, especially football
– the most popular sports in the country, played in all nocks and cranny, from
obscure villages to cities.
Football in Cameroon predated
independence. The Cameroon Football Federation known in its French acronym as
FECAFOOT is the local football governing body, created in 1959. It joined the
International Federation of Football Associations (FIFFA) and Confederation of
African Football (CAF) after independence in 1962 and 1963, respectively. It’s
in charge of actual management of the game of football in Cameroon, including
all national football teams, male and female, from youth to senior teams. Football
events and or programmes are handled by this football house though under the
supervision of the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education. FECAFOOT
organizes the Cameroon Cup – the oldest and most popular football event in the
country. Final game of Cameroon Cup is usually presided by the Head of State,
according to constitutional provision. Cameroon’s domestic football league
(both male and female) is equally organized and managed by FECAFFOT. The main
league (male football league) started as a harmonized league for West and East
Cameroon in 1968, when the then West Cameroon football league was
surreptitiously disbanded. The Federal Football League was thrown up, which
later stayed with its former East Cameroon appellation “The
National First Division Championship”.
In the sixties, seventies
and early eighties, the first division Championship was a stiff competition
among domestic football clubs. Most of these clubs were formed according to
tribal and or regional lines, with solid fan base that are sometimes
fanatical. Match days used to be great
fanfare for winners and sorrow for losers, and often marked with violence - at
the time when football was less lucrative and played just for the pleasure of
it. Those were the days of football clubs like Oryx, Caimant, Dynamo and Union
Sportive of Douala, Cambank, P & T and Prisons of Buea, Lion, Canon,
Tonnerre Kalala and Diamant, all in Yaounde, PWD Bamenda, PWD Kumba, etc.
These clubs produced
football greats and legends like Mbape Lepe, Joseph Ewunkem, Rodolphe
Tokoto, Gregoire
Mbida, Manga Onguene, Theophile Abega, Thomas Nkono and Emmanuel Kunde. Later
were Bell Antoine, Milla Roger, Louis-Paul Mfede, the Biyick brothers of Francois
Omam-Biyick and Kanan Biyick, and many others. They dominated
Cameroon domestic football at the time and also brought the country to
limelight in African football through clubs like Canon, which played a unique
style of football that nick-named them 'Brazilians of Africa'. Canon won continental
tittles: the African Cup of Champions in 1978 and 1980, as well as the African
Winners Cup in 1979. These crop of players also formed integral part of the
national team in the sixties, played in the national team when Cameroon hosted
the African Cup of Nations in 1972 and the world Cup in 1982, where the team
participated without loosing a match, though kicked out in the first round.
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Between the last five decades and now, Cameroon football and even the domestic league has evolved. The national first division championship metamorphosed into Cameroon Professional League, operating into Divisions one and two, comprising 18 football clubs for Division one (as was in the 60’s) and 15 for Division two. The league has become comparatively lucrative, with corporate sponsorships. Communication giant like MTN are picking up sponsorship bills.
Between the last five decades and now, Cameroon football and even the domestic league has evolved. The national first division championship metamorphosed into Cameroon Professional League, operating into Divisions one and two, comprising 18 football clubs for Division one (as was in the 60’s) and 15 for Division two. The league has become comparatively lucrative, with corporate sponsorships. Communication giant like MTN are picking up sponsorship bills.
Development of grassroots
and youth football has come to the fore over these periods. Inter-quarter
football competitions are gaining momentum - organized during summer holidays
to get more students and other young people
involved. It is sponsored mainly by local council authorities and sometimes
prominent Elites of towns and villages. The competition has a national spread.
The popular “Top Cup”
football competition is another competition organized for different categories
of youths, sponsored by the Brewery Company ‘Le Brasseries du Cameroon’. These
football competitions saw the emergence of small village or community football
clubs. Rural clubs like Ikata Farmers in Meme Division of Southwest Region came
through this rank and made indelible marks in the Southwest regional interpool
football tournament. Football academies also sprang up, like the Brasseries
football academy, Njalla Quan football academy and others – training many young
people in aspects of the game of football. This dimension of youth football
development harnessed potentials and showcased young talents. It groomed young players
who not only came to national football limelight but later formed the bedrock
of different cadres of the national football team. They also formed part of Cameroon
professional footballers plying their trade in other developed football leagues
in the world. The likes of Augustine Simo, Samuel Eto’o, Rigobert Song, late
Fue MacVivan, and others who were part of the national team at one time or the
other, emanated from this process.
This process somewhat
reflected on the glory days of Cameroon football in Africa. Though the country
has not done significantly well in youth championships in the continent, the
senior national team, Indomitable Lions has been very successful by all
standards. Founded in 1959, the Indomitable Lions has won African Cup of
Nations five times (including back to back in 2000 and 2002), with latest win
this 2017. It has made six world cup appearances, with a scintillating
performance in 1990, where it got to the quarter final, being the first African
team to do so. This feat was among the considerations that gingered the
increase of African participating teams from three to five, at the Mondial. The
Lions as popular called in Cameroon, has equally won football gold at the
Olympics and runners-up at the FIFFA Confederation cup. On individual basis,
some Cameroon players have won the annual African Best Player Award at
different times; notably Milla Roger, Thomas Nkono and Samuel Eto’o who won it
for a record five times.
As laudable as these
achievements, it is rather paradoxical that football in Cameroon is still
bedeviled by challenges. Endemic
corruption, poor infrastructure, poor management and administration are some lingering
issues which have negatively impacted football in the country.
Corruption is somewhat institutionalized
in Cameroon’s football management and structure, like a cankerworm nourishing
deep on the system. It has become both the motivation and goal to serve in football
management positions. It goes in the way of ‘dash’, ‘gifts’, ‘greasing of
palms’, outright embezzlement and misappropriation. According to a football
club manager, those who think
Cameroon football is doing well simply because the national team always qualify
for international tournaments like AFCON and World Cup, are wrong. Individual
Cameroonian football players, especially those playing for foreign clubs, are
doing well. They are the ones propping up the national team but football at
home is dying. Former General Manager of Fecafoot, Jean-Lambert Nang, said in
his book ‘Desperate Football House’: “Cameroon football is a victim of
treachery, fraud, financial trafficking, corruption of the actors and
personnel, impunity on the part of its main stakeholders, falsification of
official documents and the ages of footballers as well as the indifference of
officialdom”. Nang, who is also a celebrated sports journalist, seconded to
Fecafoot by the government, was sacked as General Manager because he was viewed
by Fecafoot as a spy who came only to dig out what’s done in the football
house. He cited several cases where personal interests were placed before the
general interest of football and its main actors – the players:
During the 1998 World Cup, the then Minister of Communication
who was in charge of allowances intended for players, simply pocketed the money
and announced that he had ‘forgotten’ the bag containing the money in the
aircraft. Another minister, collected eight million FCFA (US $16 000) for an
air ticket saying that the ticket bought for him had gone missing. He
eventually boarded the plane using the ticket which was supposedly missing. In
2007, one of the private mobile telephone operators in the country (MTN) signed
a convention with Fecafoot for the renovation of a number of stadia in the
country for a total sum of 400 million FCFA (about US $800 000). The telephone
company was to provide 300 million FCFA (US $600 000) and FECAFOOT 100 million
(US $200 000). While MTN disbursed part of its own share of the money for commencement
of work, Fecafoot would not come up with its own money. At one time the company
threatened to stop financing the project unless Fecafoot pay its share. But
instead of the football management paying up in order to ensure that the
renovation work continued, it gave 73 million FCFA (about US $146 000) to the
then Minister of Youth and Sports so that he could “breathe better” – as he
said after receiving the money. At the of the 2014 World Cup, football
officials from Cameroon, including then Fecafoot president overpaid themselves
by 235 million FCFA (US $470 000). They were ordered by Prime Minister Philemon
Yang to repay the money. Few years ago, Parliament appropriated a total of 12
035 585 000 FCFA (about US $24.1 million) for the renovation of existing
infrastructure and preparation of players for international competitions within
three years. There is nothing to show for this money.
Poor
infrastructure or facilities has been the bane of football growth and
development in Cameroon. Divine providence has endowed the country with
abundant football talents, more than it has so far been tapped. Many of these
talents never found expressions due to gross lack of facilities; raising the
issue of luck, player’s exposure, skill, passion and personal efforts to
succeed, as instrumental in Cameroon’s modest achievements in international
football. Many football experts never attributed these achievements to impact
of good football infrastructure, in a country where professional domestic
league matches are still played on hard rough ground sometimes laden with red
mud and players splashing through deep puddles, when it rains. This is
happening in this 21st century.
Until Cameroon
commenced preparation for both the 2016 and 2019 AFCON, football facilities in
the country was in complete comatose. The country could boast of two main
stadia: Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaoundé and Reunification stadium Douala,
both built in 1972 when she played host to the African Nations Cup. Later, the
Garoua Rhoumji Adja stadium came. Yaoundé and Garoua stadia were more in use and
therefore had intermittent face lifts because of the football engagements of
Coton Sport Garoua, and the national football teams. Douala stadium was more of
debris.
The new stadia
in Limbe and Baffoussam, ongoing second stadia in Yaoundé and Douala (all with
adjoining training pitches), are ripple effects of Cameroon’s hosting rights
for the two AFCON competitions, majority of funding which are from partnership
agreements and loan facilities. If AFCON had not been in view, obviously the
status quo of ruin, dilapidation and total lack of football infrastructure
could have persisted.
Poor
management and administration is a critical menace of football in Cameroon.
Football management is laden with corruption, breeding nepotism, tribalism and
favouritisms in the appointment of football administrators. FIFFA’s stand on non-interference
and independence of national football associations will remain an international
chorus as far as government funds football association, which is also indirectly
accountable to government. There are many instances where government had to
step in to save the country and national team from international embarrassment
on issues of player’s bonuses and wages of technical manager and staff..
Appointment of
Minister in charge of sports and so called election of Fecafoot executive
committee are manipulated and influenced by government in one way or the other;
thereby creating jobs and opportunities for political loyalists, friends and
cronies. This leads to football positions having increasing political
significance where merit and competence are completely voided. One time head
coach of the national team Artur Jorge resigned his position because of undue
interference in the technical management of the national football team by then
Minister of Sports and Physical Education. Such interference ensures talent and
skill are jettisoned for mediocrity, in the selection of players for all levels
of national team. Former executive vice- president of defunct mount Cameroon
football club, Buea said that the current management style and regulations of
Cameroon Football Federation needs complete overhaul.
Transparency
and accountability in management is non-existing. Cash awards in international
tournaments like the six AFCON victories, FIFFA grants for world cup
participations, gate takings from international and local matches are all shrouded
in secrecy – like an in-house affair between the football body and other
government stakeholders. At one time, staff at the Fecafoot
headquarters almost brought football activities to a standstill because they
were owed 44 months’ salary. FIFA sent money to Fecafoot to pay the arrears.
However, officials paid only 16 months’ arrears and pocketed the money for the
remaining 28 months.
To move forward, the state of football
in Cameroon needs critical diagnosis for appropriate steps to be taken to
effect changes. Football remains the most popular sports in the country that
has become integral part of social life of the population. Cameroonians of all
levels are great football fans. Condoning corruption in the system is capable
of suffocating their passion for the game and their unflinching support for the
national team. Therefore issue of corruption should be adequately addressed
even if it requires effective legislation for punitive measures.
‘Operation Sparrow hawk’ – the
anti-corruption move of government should be strengthened and football
management included in its scope. The football house and supervisory authority
in the country needs sound management. Development of the game as a viable
commercial entity will never be possible if mismanagement and administrative malfeasance
continues. Domestic league should be improved, with processes for selection or
election, transparency and accountability put in place - which gives the
populace a stake and sense of belonging.
Sound administration and management will
reflect on good vision to develop football infrastructure beyond major football
events. The need therefore to devise better strategy for maintenance culture
that will sustain ongoing infrastructural upgrades in the country, as benefits
of hosting CAF tournaments.
Written By: Godycreative
Twitter: @Godycreative