The 29th edition of Mount Cameroon Race, Africa’s oldest international athletic competition, kicked off early Saturday in Southwest, one of the two English-speaking regions of the country torn by a separatist armed conflict.

Cameroon’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, who presided at the opening ceremony, said tight security measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of the athletes.

“We are assuring them (athletes) that everything will be fine. Their security and safety is assured,” Kombi told reporters.

Reporters covering the race saw multiple police and army checkpoints and military helicopters flying low in Buea, the chief town of the Southwest region where the race is taking place.

Cameroon elite forces, Rapid Intervention Battalion, have been deployed to the neighborhoods of the town.

Separatist fighters who have been active in the region since 2017 have threatened to disrupt the annual event.

Last year, at least 18 people were injured after blasts went off in three locations just a few minutes after the race began.

The race is unfolding under the theme “Give peace a chance”.

About 600 from Congo, Ethiopia, France, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Tanzania, Chad, Tunisia and Cameroon are taking part in the competition.

The race, dubbed Race of Hope, is of a particularly difficult terrain, with athletes going up and down the mountain, which is over 4,100 meters above sea level.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroon has deployed additional troops to the country’s war-torn English-speaking region of Southwest to ensure security of Mount Cameroon Race of Hope, Africa’s oldest international athletic competition, an official said on Friday.

“The local people are proud of this event and they want it to be successful. The forces of law and order have been deployed everywhere,” the region’s governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai told reporters in Buea, chief town of the region where the race will take place on Saturday.

“We must remain vigilant, denounce all the suspected individuals who will be hanging around,” he added.

Residents said that police and military patrols have intensified in the town since Monday.

Separatist fighters who are active in the region since 2017 have threatened to disrupt the annual event.

Last year, blasts went off in three locations just a few minutes after the race began.

About 600 athletes from four continents will take part in the competition, according to organizers.

Source: Xinhuanet

Former Cameroon, Portugal and European Cup-winning Porto coach Artur Jorge has died aged 78, his family announced on Thursday.

Jorge led Porto to their maiden continental trophy with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich in the 1987 European Cup final in Vienna.

He also won seven Portuguese league titles, four as a player with Benfica and three as Porto boss, before leading Paris Saint-Germain to their second French top-flight triumph in 1994.

“It is with deep sadness that the family of Artur Jorge Braga de Melo Teixeira announces his death this morning in Lisbon following a long illness,” his family said in a statement reported by Portuguese media.

Jorge, who came through the Porto youth system but only played a handful of games for the senior team, first became head coach of the club in 1984.

He left following the European Cup triumph but returned for a second spell in 1989, winning a third league title at the helm.

“His death leaves Porto FC without a legend,” said the club in a statement.

Jorge had two stints in charge of the Portuguese national team, firstly from 1990-1991 while also Porto coach, and again from 1996-1997.

He was Switzerland boss for Euro 1996 and also coached the Cameroon national side but failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Jorge will be fondly remembered in Paris, having led PSG to league and French Cup trophies after also enjoying a two-year stint in charge of Racing Paris.

“Artur Jorge is the greatest coach I have known,” said former PSG president Michel Denisot.

“Educated, cultured, passionate, strategic, uncompromising… with him PSG grew very quickly.”

As a striker, he scored more 100 goals for Benfica as they won four league titles in five years in the early 1970s.

Source: Supersports

The head coach of the South African national football team, Hugo Broos, has opened up on what went wrong during his time with the Cameroonian national team.

Barely 10 months after guiding the Indomitable Lions to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations title, the tactician was shown the door.

Broos has detailed all that transpired before he was sacked, including allegations that he was extorting money from players before they were called up to the national team.

He explained that there appeared to be some similarities with his present situation with South Africa, having led them to a third-place finish at the just-concluded 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

In 2017, Cameroon lost 4-0 to Nigeria and then fell out of their 2018 World Cup campaign. Commenting on the manner of his departure, Broos said this week-

“I was in the hotel with the staff, I forget before which game, and there was a sports programme [on TV]. There were two guests, and one of them said, ‘I know the coach, team manager and team doctor asked for money for players to be in the national team. €5,000 if they want to play’.

“We were all in front of the TV saying, ‘What is this guy saying?’. The team manager and the doctor went to court. They stopped the programme and the guy got a fine. That’s Cameroon.”

Source: Sportsbrief.com

Cameroonian footballer Patrick Mboma’s son Kenji Mboma is selected in the first division club FC Cincinnati for the 2024 MLS super draft. He is a left-footer player and has played very well for his long range goals and exceptional dribbling skills.

Mboma had played for Dayton and has a record of scoring nine goals and tallied three assists in 15 appearances, all began while logging 1,330 minutes as a central striker. He scored six goals in his last five matches and was named First Team All-Atlantic 10.

Before he went Dayton, Mboma Dem was a playmaker in Omaha. There he notched 12 goals and 12 assists in 42 games that he played.

In the year 2022, Mboma Dem tallied six goals, eight assists and five games of two or more goal contributions.

On the course of completing his three-year career as a Maverick, Mboma Dem was invited to All-Summit Conference Newcomer Team in 2020 and All-Summit First Team 2021.

Mboma Dem was selected by FC Cincinnati with other 56 selected players. He expressed that he is incredibly grateful for the opportunity and the people that helped him and supported him along the way.

“This includes my family, friends, all my teammates and coaches, it also includes the University of Dayton,” said Mboma Dem.

Considerably, the 2024 MLS SuperDraft was the 25^th edition of the MLS SuperDraft which was organised as sports draft to select amateur, usually collegiate, soccer players that are not affiliated with an MLS club or college soccer players that had their Homegrown player rights relinquished by their parent MLS club.

Reportedly, the draft was held on Dec 19, 2023 marking the second year in a row. Despite of this that it held in 2023, the draft will retain and do the branding for 2024.

Source: News Invasion 24

Families of the victims of the Stade d’Olembe tragedy that took place during the last Africa Cup of Nations in Yaounde, Cameroon, have been invited to Sunday’s final in Abidjan, according to Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe during an address to review the ongoing AFCON.

At least eight people were killed and 38 were injured, seven seriously, in a crush that took place at the stadium before a round of 16 match between hosts Cameroon and Comoros during the last edition of the biennial continental competition on Jan. 24 2022.

It was determined that a “massive and late influx of supporters … caused the crush,” according to a government report, with security forces opening a gate outside the stadium to ease the over-crowding, which subsequently led to the tragedy.

“Some of the [victims’] family members from Cameroon are invited [to the AFCON final],” Motsepe began, “and will be with us here in Cote d’Ivoire.

“We visited each of their houses, met with their families, and expressed our condolences.”

Motsepe expressed confidence before the tournament began that measures in place around stadiums across the Ivory Coast would prevent a repeat incident during the ongoing tournament.

“The day after the final in Cameroon, we were in Cote d’Ivoire already to prepare for this following AFCON,” he added. “We had to identify what our failures and weaknesses were, and what the things were in Cameroon we had to improve.

“I’m happy that there’s been specific improvement, but despite all the precautionary measures you can take, there will always be unforeseen events. When you’re better prepared, you have a much better propensity to deal with these consequences.”

With the Ivorian government investing around $1.5 billion in tournament infrastructure, there has been no repeat of supporter deaths at the continent’s premier football event to date.

However, it hasn’t been an entirely smooth competition, with injuries suffered by media professionals travelling in a shuttle bus between Yamoussoukro and Abidjan one notable example.

For Motsepe, broadcast consistency, ticket sales and transport between the tournament venues are three clear areas of improvement that provide learnings from this year’s competition for future editions to come.

“We could have sold 150,000 tickets for the opening match, but there were empty seats,” the South African billionaire recalled. “My sponsors want to see value, and we want them to put more money in for the continent’s football development.

“Empty seats are not good for African people, but people bought up many tickets and then sold them at extortionate prices. This is one area that needs to improve.

“The broadcast of the game between Senegal and the Gambia was partly interrupted, and we can’t have that — there must be zero tolerance for any interruption or interference with the broadcast.

“There was also an instance where there was a [road] accident and our advice wasn’t followed.”

Despite these problems, Motsepe expressed his broader confidence that the tournament had been an overwhelming success, and a valuable testament to the state of African football under his premiership.

“This AFCON has been excellent, the best AFCON in the history of the competition,” he concluded. “We’ve had more than 180 countries worldwide, close to two billion people watching the football in Africa, and we should feel proud as Africans that we can produce such an exceptional competition.

“The next one must be even better, and the next one even better.”

Source: ESPN

Samuel Eto’o tendered his resignation as president of the Cameroon Football Federation on Monday only to have it rejected by its executive committee.

Eto’o, who won the African player of the year a record four times, has been dogged by allegations of improper conduct, match-fixing and corruption.

The federation said its executive committee met in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, on Monday to evaluate the national team’s performance at the Africa Cup of Nations, and that the meeting started with Eto’o offering to step down while inviting the other members “to do likewise in good faith.”

“At the end of discussions and subsequent deliberations, the members of the executive committee decided to maintain their current mandates and thus unanimously rejected the president’s resignation thereby renewing their confidence in him to continue with the same spirit of reconstruction and development of Cameroon football at all levels as envisaged in his plan adopted by the elective general assembly of Dec. 11, 2021,” the federation said in a statement, referring to the date Eto’o took over as president.

The federation made no mention in the statement of any other decisions taken or conclusions drawn. Cameroon coach Rigobert Song’s future was uncertain after a disappointing Africa Cup campaign.

Cameroon, the five-time champion, needed a win in its final group game to be sure of progressing to the group stage, scored late to achieve it, and was then eliminated by Nigeria after a lackluster performance in the round of 16.

Eto’o, who celebrated with the team after its dramatic win over Gambia in their final group game, has been dogged by corruption allegations in the last year.

Last week, sports website The Athletic reported that it had seen WhatsApp messages, emails, letters and audio recordings that allegedly support a wide-range of accusations, including “match-fixing, abuse of power, physical threats, inciting violence and spreading false information in Cameroon.” It said a file had been sent to FIFA’s ethics committee and that it is also being investigated by the Confederation of African Football.

CAF was already investigating what it said were “serious” allegations from “several Cameroonian football stakeholders” against Eto’o. It noted that the former Barcelona and Inter Milan star was “presumed to be innocent until an appropriate judicial body concludes otherwise.”

Questions were raised in Cameroon about Eto’o’s ambassadorial role with a sports betting company. At least one club complained to the Cameroonian federation about the deal, which could violate the institution’s codes.

Cameroonian soccer had plenty of problems in the past. Before Eto’o was elected president, the national league had been tainted by interference from the government, allegations of corruption and broken promises from soccer leaders.

Eto’o played at four World Cups for Cameroon between 1998 and 2014.

Source: AP

Former Cameroon international and football icon Samuel Eto’o, currently serving as the president of the Cameroonian Football Federation (FECAFOOT) has become the center of a controversial incident involving another legendary figure of the Indomitable Lions, Geremi Njitap.

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ivory Coast, already marred by controversies surrounding the Cameroonian team and their eventual elimination, witnessed a shocking event that has added fuel to the fire of existing unrest within the team.

According to Camfoot, Cameroonian squad’s journey in the tournament was beset with challenges both on and off the field.

Reports of discord and friction among team members, the coaching staff, and federation officials were rampant, leading to an atmosphere of uncertainty and tension.

Speculations about such issues began surfacing right after Cameroon’s opening match against Guinea.

However, these were initially dismissed as baseless rumors by the FECAFOOT secretary-general, who labeled them “fake news.”

The situation, however, took a dramatic turn during Cameroon’s final group game against The Gambia.

Following the team’s narrow 3-2 victory, which secured their spot in the round of 16, a series of events in the dressing room revealed the depth of the problems plaguing Cameroon’s football governance.

As various delegates took turns congratulating the players, it was Geremi Njitap’s turn, a former star for Chelsea and Real Madrid, that ignited the controversy.

Geremi’s attempt to address the team was abruptly halted when members of Eto’o’s security personnel intervened.

Geremi’s response to the security was defiant: “Go and tell the one who sent you to come and carry out his instructions himself. What is he afraid of?” This confrontation highlighted the growing rift between two of Cameroon’s most celebrated football figures.

The situation escalated when Etienne Tamo, the head of Eto’o’s security, reportedly issued a stark warning to Geremi: “I received firm instructions from the president of FECAFOOT. Geremi must not enter the locker room. If you take one more step, I will box [punch] you.”

This incident left players and onlookers in utter disbelief, exposing the extent of the internal discord.

The roots of this clash can be traced back to the differing roles and perspectives of Eto’o and Geremi in Cameroonian football.

Despite both players having made over 100 appearances for their country, their relationship soured due to Geremi’s outspoken criticism of Eto’o’s tenure as FECAFOOT president.

Source: Pulse Sports

Cameroon’s football legend Samuel Eto’o has been accused of making threats and match-fixing, with the Barcelona legend’s file sent for investigation to the FIFA Ethics Committee.

Former Barça striker and current President of the Cameroonian Football Federation, has been accused of match-fixing and paying someone to make threats.

According to a report by The Athletic, Samuel Eto’o is facing serious allegations outlined in a file sent to FIFA’s Ethics Committee. The current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation is accused of match-fixing, spreading false information, making threats, inciting violence, and ‘abuse of power.’

Source: India Today