Fecafoot: Samuel Eto’o urgently called upon to pay a colossal debt

The head of the Cameroon Football Federation has been going through a difficult period for over a month now. Samuel Eto’o has held several meetings with his executive committee in a bid to regain control of the national team, but has been unsuccessful after the disappointments of Rigobert Song’s last two years (elimination in the group phase of the World Cup in Qatar and in the last 16 of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire).

According to “high instructions”, the President of the Republic has decided to entrust the management of the national team to the Ministry of Sport and Physical Education, headed by Professor Narcisse Mouelle Koumbi, which has put Eto’o in a difficult position, forcing him to threaten to sanction the players who are on his side and that of the coach. Pending further developments, the coach already has another problem to resolve.

Guibai Gatama wins his case against Samuel Eto’o

For those who follow the news on Lattaquant.com, the name Guibai Gatama is not unfamiliar. He joined Fecafoot as a member of Samuel Eto’o’s executive committee, for whom he campaigned before the elections. However, he was ousted by the Federation’s president in 2022 after denouncing irregularities in Samuel Eto’o’s management.

Gatama took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled in his favour in 2023 and asked Fecafoot to reinstate him. This was not done. On Tuesday, a new episode in this little soap opera came to light with CAS’s decision to order Samuel Eto’o’s Fecafoot to pay Mr Gatama 6.8 million CFA francs for the readjustment of refereeing costs, a sum that constitutes 80% of the expenses incurred by Guibai Gatama, with the remainder to be paid by himself. All this within 30 days.

“Ongoing violations of Fecafoot regulations

In August 2022, less than a year after Samuel Eto’o’s arrival at the helm of the Cameroon Football Federation, Guibai Gatama was already denouncing the manoeuvres of Eto’o and his executive, who were violating Fecafoot’s statutes and regulations. This led him to decline an invitation to a meeting that year, marking the beginning of his descent into hell.

“In my capacity as a member of the Executive Committee of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fécafoot) elected on 11 December 2021, I have received a summons to take part in a session of this body scheduled for Friday 26 August 2022 in Douala. To remain consistent with my commitment to the strict observance of the statutes and regulations of Fécafoot, I will not take part in a session of the Executive Committee convened by a person who is no longer qualified to do so. As a reminder, Mr Samuel Eto’o Fils, the signatory of the Executive Committee meeting of 26 August 2022, has no longer been President of Fécafoot since he was sentenced on 20 June 2022 to 22 months in prison for tax fraud in Spain, by virtue of the combined provisions of articles 36 and 47 of the Fécafoot statutes. Driven by a republican spirit and concerned with respect for the rule of law, I will not remain silent or become an accomplice to the ongoing violation of Fécafoot’s statutes and regulations, which the new executive, under the leadership of its president, has been guilty of for many months now”, he denounced in a long post on social networks. Less than two years on, and with the current course of events at Fecafoot, he can congratulate himself on having anticipated the malaise.