Cameroon marked their FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup debut with a spirited 2-2 draw against Mexico in their Group A opener in Colombia on Saturday thanks to a brace by Naomi Eto.

The Indomitable Lionesses, representing the hopes of a continent, found themselves on the back foot early when Paola Garcia headed Mexico into the lead after just three minutes at the Estadio Nemesio Camacho in Bogota.

Despite hitting the woodwork twice through Atcha Toko Njoya and Naomi Eto, Cameroon’s first-half woes deepened as Montserrat Saldivar doubled Mexico’s advantage before the break.

However, the second half saw a transformed Cameroonian side emerge. The catalyst for their comeback was the irrepressible Eto, who took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Her first goal, a display of composure and skill as she rounded the Mexican goalkeeper, ignited Cameroon’s resurgence.

With the clock ticking down and Cameroon hopes hanging in the balance, Eto rose highest in the 85th minute to power home a header.

The goal not only secured a precious point for the Indomitable Lionesses but also announced Eto as a new star of African football as she was named the Player of the Match.

This result marks a historic moment for Cameroon but also sends a strong message about the quality of the side in the competition.

The draw breaks Mexico’s streak of wins in opening matches, underlining the competitive nature of this Cameroonian side.

Looking ahead, Indomitable Lionesses will face hosts Colombia in their next group match.

Source: CAF.online

The Cameroon men’s national team head coach Marc Brys has alleged he has been subjected to “physical threats”, deprived of basic equipment and his players were sent threatening letters “designed to demoralise them” by the Cameroon Football Association (Fecafoot) during his first international window as head coach in June.

Brys, who was appointed head coach in May by the Cameroonian government, was part of a standoff with Fecafoot in May after they initially resisted his appointment. Fecafoot appeared to appoint an interim replacement after a clash between the head coach and president Samuel Eto’o.

A conciliatory press conference alongside Eto’o, where the Fecafoot president apologised, suggested the rift was healed however it now appears that significant tensions remain.

A letter, seen by The Athletic, was sent by Fecafoot to Brys on August 18, 2024, asking for the coach to explain himself within 72 hours following an interview Belgian news outlet Derniere Heure (DH).

In the interview, Brys made a series of allegations, including that his goalkeeper, Manchester United’s Andre Onana, had to warm up alone for the match against Angola on June 11 as his assistants were not accredited and, of Eto’o, that he “is very influential, but his only success is as a footballer. In other areas — coaching, business, and evidently, as a leader — he has failed.”

Eto’o, a former striker for FC Barcelona and Inter Milan, has been president of Fecafoot since December 2021 but has been the subject of multiple allegations. He was fined by the Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) in July following an investigation into alleged violation of the principles of ethics and integrity. Eto’o was cleared of manipulating football matches.

In a letter dated August 21 2024, which The Athletic has also seen, Brys has responded to Fecafoot by detailing that he will not be a “yes yes” coach and went on to demand answers regarding a series of failings during his first weeks as the head coach, calling the period the “greatest frustrations of my coaching career”.

Brys expanded on his allegations in the interview with DH. Addressing the secretary general of Fecafoot, he wrote, with reference to Cameroon’s World Cup qualifiers against Angola and Cape Verde in June: “How can a coach be deprived of teaching materials (confiscation of jerseys, balls, bus) as part of the training sessions for an essential match to qualify relating to qualifying for the Canada-United States World Cup?

“How do you understand that people I don’t know, with whom I have never worked, find themselves in my dressing room on match day?

“On the eve of the match against Angola, how do you understand that threatening letters are sent to players with copies to their clubs, despite a crushing victory against Cape Verde? This was intended to demoralise them.

“How do you understand when we disembarked in Luanda (the capital city of Angola), I was the victim of verbal attacks from Mr Benoit Angbwa, physical aggression from Mr Thierry Ndoh and that subsequently, Dr Fotso tried to expel me from the national selection bus during our transfer to the hotel? How do you believe that Fecafoot refused to accredit my assistants, forcing the first-choice goalkeeper of the Indomitable Lions to warm up on his own? When we know that for specialists, this is a specific activity with a view to conditioning the national team’s last line of defence. This is unheard of in world football for a national team.”

Brys also claimed that he had seen no condemnation from Fecafoot regarding the personal “attacks” and that he had been the victim the insults of all kinds against me and family”. He then stated his wish to continue working with Fecafoot “only give us polite, courteous professional interlocutors and we will all work together to advance the national team”.

Tensions first emerged in May following Brys’s appointment as Cameroon head coach, which was made by the Cameroon ministry of sport to the “great astonishment” of Fecafoot.

Video footage emerged in May of Eto’o and Brys appearing to have a heated exchange, with Fecafoot then writing in a statement that the decision to replace Brys had been taken following an emergency meeting, convened by Eto’o due to the “inappropriate behaviour” of Brys and his assistants.

The federation announced that Martin Ndtoungou had taken over the Cameroon team on an interim basis and was to hold a press conference to reveal his squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Cape Verde and Angola.

But, following what it described as a “fruitful and convivial meeting”, Fecafoot clarified the status of the team in a further statement that week, outlining Brys was to remain as head coach, with Joachim Mununga as his assistant.

Eto’o then apologised to Brys in a press conference the pair held, stating that there were a “lot of emotions” in their previous “unfortunate” encounter.

Cameroon are due to face Namibia and Zimbabwe next month as part of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations, to be held in Morocco.

The Athletic has contacted Brys and Fecafoot for comment.

Source: The Athletic

After Team USA won the gold medal at the Olympics, Joel Embiid was honored by Cameroon. Joel Embiid, the center for the Sixers, was awarded the Medal of Commander of the Order of Valor by his native Cameroon following his victory with Team USA at the Olympics.

Embiid received the accolade from Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, according to TMZ Sports. It is given to individuals who make “exceptional contributions in the fields of arts, science, agriculture, commerce, or industry.”

Born in Cameroon, Embiid resided there until he went to the United States at the age of sixteen in order to pursue a career in basketball. Having played in seven All-Star games as a professional, Embiid won the 2022–2023 NBA MVP award.

Embiid was given the choice to represent France, the United States, or Cameroon; nevertheless, he finally selected the USA.

The Americans finished the Olympics with a perfect 6-0 record, winning 98-87 over the host nation, France, to seal their gold medal run.

Source: blacksportsonline

Cameroon will hold a funeral this Saturday for late Landry Nguemo in Dschang.

The former Cameroon midfielder, who died in a road accident in Obala on Thursday 27 June, is now en route to the land of his ancestors.

Landry Nguemo’s memory has been hailed by several players deep within the Indomitable Lions and beyond, including the Minister of Sport and Physical Education.

Landry Nguemo was born on 28 November 1985 in Yaoundé. He played as a defensive midfielder.

He reportedly spent his childhood in Cameroon and was ferried to France through the Nantes system. He joined the AS Nancy-Lorraine youth academy at the age of 16 and passed his baccalauréat at 17 despite missing some exams for watching the 2002 African Cup of Nations on television, which his Cameroon team won. He turned professional at the age of 19, playing 4 games for his country.

By Rita Akana with files

Former African football president Issa Hayatou, who died on Thursday after a long illness, one day before his 78th birthday, presided over Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) affairs for 29 years from 1988 until his ouster in 2017.

He also served as acting Fifa president from 2015 to 2016 after Sepp Blatter was suspended by the world football governing body. He also served as senior vice president of the world’s football governing body, Fifa for 25 years (from 1992 to 2017).

He was an International Olympic Committee member from 2001-2016, after which he became an honorary member. Hayatou even challenged Blatter for the Fifa presidency in 2002, but lost heavily.

He began his sports career as a sprinter, and held Cameroon’s national record over 400 metres and 800 metres. But the former Physical Education teacher became known for endurance and longevity, perhaps in preparation for his long career in sports administration.

He had been a member of Cameroon’s basketball team. By the end of his life, few could remember Hayatou’s impact in the classroom. He was better known on the pitch and off it, for football administration until 2017.

On Thursday, Cameroon’s State radio announced that Hayatou had died in Paris, from where he had been following events at the 2024 Olympic Games while also nursing a long-term undisclosed illness. He was 77, just a day to turning 78, the radio information indicated. He had been frail in recent months and had been in and out of hospital for some time.

His death came shortly after Morocco had beaten Egypt 6-0 in the bronze medal contest of men’s football.

But the internet had ‘killed’ him long before he actually died. He had initially been forced to deny those rumours, somehow mimicking his resilience in life.

Hayatou’s first engagement with African football administration was in 1985 when he joined the leadership of Cameroon’s football federation, Fecafoot, as Secretary General and later became its president. He would then be elected CAF President in 1988, a position he held for 29 years until he was replaced by Madagascar’s Ahmad Ahmad.

He had a checkered career in football administration. While some have accused him of corruption and mismanaging African football, others praised him for expanding the reach of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), Africa’s premier national football team tournament, from 16 teams to a 24-team affair, enabling countries previously thought of as minnows to rise.

He left Caf to join the world football governing body Fifa, after its President Blatter was banned from all football-related activities in 2015 as part of corruption investigations.

Born on August 9, 1946 to an influential royal family in Garoua, north of Cameroon, Hayatou first started out as Sports and Physical Education teacher, and moved on to sports administration. In the early 1980s, he served as director of Sports in Cameroon under the Ministry of Sport.

He became secretary-general of Cameroonian football federation Fecafoot in 1974, at the age of 28, and also served as its president from 1986. The same year in 1986, Hayatou was elected to sit in Caf’s executive committee.

Hayatou presided over Caf’s affairs at its Cairo headquarters from the time he was first elected in Casablanca, Morocco in 1988 following the retirement of Ethiopia’s Ydnekatchew Tessema, till March 2017.

Like Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, Hayatou won term after term as head of Caf, serving six in all. In 2017, he unsuccessfully sought an eighth mandate as head of Africa’s football governing body, losing to Ahmad Ahmad, then president of Madagascar’s football federation. Many observers thought he had overstayed his welcome at Caf.

When he took over the running of continental football body, its flagship competition, Afcon involved just eight teams, and only two spots were reserved for Africa at the Fifa World Cup.

Under Hayatou’s watch, several continental football competitions were introduced, and the Afcon expanded. In 1990, Caf changed Afcon from a 12 eight-team affair to a 16-team affair. Currently, the Afcon is a 24-team affair.

Under his watch, Caf created women’s age-group competitions (CAF Under-20 and Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations), and the African Nations Championship (Chan) which involves national teams playing in home-based leagues.

At the World Cup, Caf successfully persuaded Fifa to increase the number of slots reserved for Africa from two to five places, and to increase the number of seats reserved for Africa at the Fifa executive Committee from one to four.

During his term, Africa hosted the Fifa World Cup for the first time in 2010, in South Africa. As African football rose, his stature also rose.

One incident best illustrates Hayatou’s growing influence on the continent. In November 2014, he placed a call to Equatorial Guinea’s President-Teodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, asking his country to host the 2015 Afcon after Morocco pulled out, citing the outbreak of Ebola virus. The North African nation had feared that hosting the tournament at a time when Ebola was rocking west Africa would be a kin to opening up the country to ravages of the killer disease.

Hayatou was in a dilemma.

Barely two months to the start of Africa’s premier national football team tournament, Hayatou jetted into the Equatoguinean capital Malabo, and was received by Obiang Nguema himself at the presidential palace on November 14, 2014. The two struck a deal to replace Morocco as hosts.

“Following fraternal and fruitful discussions, the Head of State of Equatorial Guinea has agreed to host the tournament from January 17 to February 8, 2015,” Caf said in a statement at the time.

“Therefore, the Executive Committee of Caf confirms that the Afcon 2015 will be held in Equatorial Guinea on the dates agreed,” the statement went on.

“The Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone should not paralyse continental programmes and events… Ebola outbreak is being surmounted and is by no means a reason to stall the Afcon,” Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma who was African Union Commission Chairperson at the time said in a statement, praising Equatorial Guinea’s acceptance to host the tournament.

But that episode also signaled the start of the end for Hayatou’s tight grip on African football. After the next edition in 2017 hosted in Gabon, his stay at the head of CAF came to an end.

Many Cameroonian football writers and stakeholders believe Fifa had a hand in Hayatou’s humiliating election loss to Ahmad Ahmad.

Prior to the election in Addis Ababa, Philip Chiyangwa, then president of the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) had organised a meeting with members of the regional football association during which Ahmad was endorsed to succeed Hayatou in the presence of Fifa president, Gianni Infantino. Infantino had been “invited” to the meeting as a guest.

“The strategy to bring someone from nowhere worked as Hayatou already had a grip on influential members of the Caf executive committee, a few had tried to succeed him and ran into trouble,” Cameroonian football analyst, Franklin Sone Bayen said of Hayattou’s fate.

In 2002 when Hayatou contested the Fifa presidency against Sepp Blatter, even the Cameroon FA voted for Blatter. It is said that Hayatou’s compatriot Iya Mohammed who was president of Cameroonian football federation at the time, had been instructed by his government to vote for Blatter, who had earlier met President Biya in Yaounde during his campaign tour.

Yet Hayatou still played a key role in the awarding of the hosting rights of the 2019 Afcon to Cameroon. Caf, under Ahmad, later moved the tournament from Cameroon to Egypt, citing security challenges and delays in stadium construction. To critics, Ahmad was using the opportunity to settle scores against Hayatou.

Cameroon was then given hosting rights of the 2021 tournament, which was delayed by 12 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two years after losing the contest for Caf’s leadership, Hayatou flew back to Cameroon from Cairo where he had lived most of life at Caf headquarters.

President Biya appointed him the chairperson of the Board of Directors of National Football Academy of Cameroon.

One thing always stuck out though. The Hayatou family had wielded so much political power, having been traditional holders of the sultanate known as Lamidat. The family remained influential throughout the reign of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo and later Biya. Hayatou’s brother Sadou Hayatou, served as Cameroon’s Prime Minister under Biya.

Hayatou’s other brother, Alim Garga Hayatou who had become the Sultan (Lamido) of Garoua, served as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Public Health as the officer in charge of epidemics and pandemics.

Speculation was rife that Hayatou would be appointed to the government peaked upon the death of his brother Alim Garga in 2021. When Garoua kingmakers gathered to pick a new Lamido, Hayatou was touted to be the next king (Lamido) of the dynasty, but his younger nephew, Army Captain Ibrahim El Rachidine, chosen for the royal seat.

Around the same time, Fifa slapped Hayatou with a one-year ban from all football-related activities for breach of code of ethics during his tenure as Caf boss. He was also fined $33,189.

Fifa’s investigations centered on $1billion deal Hayatou had signed with French company, Lagardere Sport for the commercialisation of media and marketing rights of Caf-organised competitions during his time as CAF president.

He appealed the matter at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In February 2022, CAS ruled in his favour, and the ban was dropped.

The ban had deprived Hayatou of participating in the opening ceremony of 33rd edition of the Afcon in his homeland in January 2022. But the CAS decision meant he could attend the closing ceremony.

Culled from The East African

CAF legend Issa Hayatou, one of the greatest African football leaders of all time, has died at the age of 78.

The former Vice President of FIFA and former head of the Africa Football Confederation (CAF) reportedly died from an undisclosed illness.

Issa Hayatou won the presidency of the African Football Confederation in Morocco when Cameroon won the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations trophy. He died on Thursday 8 August 2024 in Paris following an illness.

(This item is still developing)

By Alain Tabot-Tanyi

FECAFOOT on Monday terminated its contract with American Sportswear giant One All Sports, ending a two-year partnership.

In a release announcing the termination, the Secretary General of FECAFOOT Blaise Djounang cited contractual breaches as the reason for the decision.

The Blaise statement furthered “The Cameroon Football Federation places great importance on the proper fulfillment of contractual obligations by both parties. That’s why we’ve terminated this contract and ended the partnership with this supplier.”

Cameroon Concord News understands that the Indomitable Lions will wear the One All Sports product for the last time in September before the federation launches a tender to find a new kit supplier.

The Samuel Eto’o teleguided decision comes as the qualifiers for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) are set to begin next month. The Indomitable Lions, grouped with Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, will start their qualification campaign on September 6, 2024, in Douala against Namibia.

Tensions between Fecafoot and One All Sports had been brewing for months. In March 2024, the federation had already expressed concerns about the non-compliance with certain contractual clauses.

One All Sports was chosen to replace the French supplier Le Coq Sportif, whose contract had been terminated prematurely for similar reasons. At the time, Fecafoot hailed the contract with the American brand as the most lucrative in its history, with a commitment of XAF1 billion annually or XAF3 billion throughout the contract period. The amount was more than double what Le Coq Sportif offered. However, the partnership with One All Sports ultimately failed to meet Fecafoot’s expectations. Based in Bangkok and primarily known for its activities in motorsports, One All Sports was at the center of controversy from the beginning, notably due to the dispute with Le Coq Sportif.

Rita Akana with files from Koaci