CAF competitions: Cameroonian clubs expose chaotic management of football.

Regarded as one of the most successful football countries in Africa, Cameroon found itself entangled in yet monumental scandals over the weekend.

The embarrassing outing of Victoria United FC in the CAF Champions League, Fovu Club of Baham in the CAF Confederation Cup and the difficult departure of Lekie Filles for the CAF Women’s Champions League Zonal qualifiers, has raised eyebrows on how football is run in the country. 

The build-up of the Cameroonian representatives ahead of their continental assignments offered very little to desire. 

It was only at the eleventh hour that clubs like Victoria United and Fovu paid the heavy price after being unable to register their players.

Victoria United’s woes 

The Cameroon MTN Elite One champions for the 2023/2024 season, faced Samartex of Ghana, in Douala on Sunday August 18, 2024.

The kick-off of the game was delayed by about 50 minutes because the visiting team contested the eligibility of certain players in the Victoria United team. 

Victoria United had only 13 of its players registered in the CAF Connect System and cleared for the game, this to the astonishment of even the club president, Valentine Nkwain, who said he was “shocked”.

Changes had to be made in the squad of the Limbe team before kick-off. They ended up losing 1-0.

Nkwain subtly indicted the country’s football federation for their woes, saying “someone somewhere didn’t do their job”.

The defeat was a cruel blow to Victoria United. The Limbe-based Elite One is now starring at a premature first round exit. 

They have the chance to prove their hunger to qualify for the second round when they meet FC Samartex in the return leg clash this weekend.

The case of Fovu 

After a wretched season, which culminated in their relegation to the second division league, Fovu Club of Baham, were desperate to find redemption in the CAF Confederation Cup. 

However, there were warning signs that a chaotic campaign was about to unfold when more than three quarters of the squad are said to have left the club at the end of last season. 

To make matters worse, Christophe Ousmanou, who had been appointed the club’s headsl coach barely a month to their CAF Confederation Cup preliminary round fixture, stepped down days to their departure to Liberia. 

Fovu Club were even unable to travel on time for the game. It is reported that only four of the first 10 players who boarded the flight to Monrovia were registered in the CAF Connect System.

Their match against Paynesville of Liberia should have started at 4 pm on Sunday but was delayed for up to 30 plus minutes. This because Fovu had just six players available for kick off.

About 30 minutes after official kick-off time, additional three players and two officials, including the coach, arrived.

However, only two of the three players, including the goalkeeper and the new arrivals, were registered in the CAF system with photos. 

According to reports, the match officials allowed the game to be played with the consent of the Liberian team. 

With such cacophony and under such conditions, Fovu Club could only field in eight players. 

They eventually lost the game 4-0 and will need a miracle to qualify when they host the return fixture in Yaounde this coming weekend. 

Fovu of Baham qualified for the CAF Confederation in September 2023, after securing the Cup of Cameroon. 

Analysts and observers have rubbished the club management, who, despite having a period of 10 months to prepare for the competition, didn’t do anything concrete. 

It has been a difficult period for the club said to have been faced with repeated sit-in protests from players, even before the end of last football season, which was concluded in April 2024.

This, because management didn’t live up to its bargain of paying players' salaries. FECAFOOT has also been heavily criticised for the present predicaments of the club. 

It is reported that Fovu Club has not received even a franc from the prize money they won in the Cup of Cameroon last September. They haven’t also received their own share of subvention from the federation for last season. 

Lekie Filles’ painful road journey to DR Congo

Cameroon’s representative in the zonal qualifiers for the CAF Women’s Champions League, Lekie Filles, covered 2,197km by road to get to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, for the qualifying tournament.

The team arrived Kinshasa on the night of Sunday August 18, 2024, after travelling for approximately 40 hours.

They arrived the country on the eve of their first match in the qualifiers against Atletico Malabo of Equatorial.

They would have travelled by plane, but due to limited resources, they opted to go by road.

The club whose president, Koa Luc, died two months ago, is said to be owed money amounting to approximately 35 million FCFA. 

The amount corresponds to their prize money for Guinness Super League winners for last season and the Cup of Cameroon for 2024. 

Lekie Filles Team Press Officer, TPO, of Lekie FF, Herman Ewane, told The Guardian Post that the club did not receive any support from the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT and the Women’s Professional Football League, LFFC.

Last season, the then women division one champions, Awa Filles FC, missed the same qualifying tournament due to financial constraints.

FECAFOOT’s nonchalance

While officials of Cameroonian clubs are being blamed for amateurism, the bigger blame goes to the country’s football federation. 

The federation has been accused of not only withholding club’s share of money from sponsors of the various leagues but also failing to accompany the clubs in fulfilling CAF requirements for such competitions. This has frustrated clubs which are already financially drained.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3204 Tuesday August 20, 2024