It has been a chaotic week for the Cameroonian Football Federation (FECAFOOT). After being ordered back by FIFA to pay former Cameroon national team coach Toni Conceição over $1.6 million for wrongful termination in July 2022, it has come to light that the Portuguese coach has not received anything.
A stern reminder from the world football body to FECAFOOT in December went unanswered and now FIFA is threatening further sanctions if no action is taken to pay Conceição. FIFA is currently withholding 20% of development funds to FECAFOOT, a previous sanction implemented in July 2024, and now could potentially suspend the federation if this course of action continues.
Conceição led the Indomitable Lions to a third place finish at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations hosted by the Cameroon, after which his contract was extended. However the election of Cameroonian football icon Samuel Eto'o as the new president of FECAFOOT changed everything.
Eto'o swiftly moved to install fellow national team legend Rigobert Song as the new coach despite the endorsement of Conceição by the country's Ministry of Sports, which plays a major role in the funding and decision making related to football activities. Conceição promptly claimed improper termination of his contract through the legal process of FIFA and won his case against FECAFOOT.
This issue between the football administration and the government is also relevant to ongoing tension between Cameroon's current coach Marc Brys and Eto'o, who expressed his public dismay at the hiring of the Belgian. FECAFOOT continues to make things difficult for Brys and earlier this week, local top football site Camfoot reported that the FECAFOOT executive committee presented a list of eighteen complaints against Brys to the Ministry of Sports for perceived offenses ranging from ignoring meetings to disrespecting the Cameroonian national anthem.
In a bit of good news, Eto'o did avoid paying a $200,000 fine to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after an appeals jury earlier this week determined that the fine was issued through an improper process. However it appears that FECAFOOT is far from out of trouble with the term of Eto'o continuing to be newsworthy but also controversial.
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