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Football : Turbulent End of Season (10.11.2005)
The situation has been blamed on poor handling of complaints by the Cameroon Football Federation.
The 2005 football season in Cameroon might end up going down the annals of history as one of the most chaotic. It has been a season marred by several unethical attitudes, a litany of cases and above all incoherence in decisions by the Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT. The judicial structures of FECAFOOT — the Central Homologation Commission, the Discipline, Ethics and Problem-Solving Commission and the Appeal Commissions have been at logger heads, to go by the decisions and counter decisions taken. This double standards in decision-taking has weakened FECAFOOT authority and cast doubts on its management style.
It all began with violence in stadiums. Since the start of the second phase of the 2005 edition of the National Division I championship on July 17, 2005, several encounters have ended prematurely due to acts of violence. A playing day hardly went by without a bad incident on the pitch. From Yaounde to Bamenda, Akonolinga, Ngaoundere, Garoua, Buea, Bafoussam, matches were halted by irate fans who could not bear to see their teams lose. Several match officials were molested. Unfortunately, FECAFOOT demonstrated its limits in handling these crisis as the judicial commissions most often opted for a replay. Today, Tonnerre is threatening to boycott the 34th and last playing day if attention is not given to three appeals which it has deposited at the FECAFOOT.
For Cup of Cameroon, what began like a joke ended up as a serious conflict with the President of FECAFOOT stepping in to take the final decision. The second finalist for the prestigious cup that is played in the presence of the Head of State was finally known yesterday after the President of FECAFOOT, Iya Mohammed, who doubles as
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Directorof SODECOTON that owns Coton Sport, demanded and obtained from the executive bureau of FECAFOOT, the need to stick to the decision of the appeal commission to qualify Unisport and Impot for the Cup of Cameroon final. "Football should not be used to divide Cameroonians", he said.
In effect, after both semi-final fixtures (Impots FC Vs Sahel FC and Unisports Vs Coton Sport) failed to render a verdict on the pitch, the disciplinary commission disqualified Sahel for refusing to travel to Douala. Impots therefore qualified as the first finalist, although Sahel officials saw in the decision gross injustice basing on the fact that they had requested that the match be postponed. The trouble, however, was in getting the second finalist that was expected at the end of the Unisports Vs Coton Sport encounter. The crux of the matter was with the interpretation of the notion of neutrality of stadium and the home and away match rule which states that in case of a draw in aggregate goals, the away goals count double. Conflicting decisions (qualification of Unisport and replay of the match) were taken by the different FECAFOOT judicial structures. The decision of the President of FECAFOOT to put and end to the wrangling yesterday is therefore most welcomed. Proper management could have prevented such embarrassments.
Division II football is not left out of the roar. The representative of the West province at this year’s round robin tournament is still awaited. Federal and Cefoke are expected to play the final after Lac Baleng et Bandja FC were disqualified by the executive committee of the FECAFOOT and the club officials sanctioned. Last Tuesday, officials of Lac Baleng and Bandja were at the FECAFOOT headquarters to contest the decision. From all indications, all is not well with Cameroon’s football. The drama continues…
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