While the President of the Cameroon Football Federation is opposed to the recruitment of the Indomitable Lions' new technical staff, the Minister of Sport is adamant that the State has no intention of negotiating with Fécafoot.
The dispute between the Cameroon government and the Cameroon Football Federation(Fécafoot) is taking a sharp turn for the worse. In a letter dated April 5, 2024, Sports Minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi clearly set out the legal basis for the government's decision to appoint Marc Brys as the new coach of the Indomitable Lions. The decision, taken in accordance with the directives of Head of State Paul Biya, is aimed at revitalizing the national soccer team following performances deemed unsatisfactory since Samuel Eto'o's election as head of Fécafoot.
Fécafoot has proposed 3 candidates
The Minister invokes article 9 of the agreement signed with the Federation on February 5, 2015, which according to him, grants the State the competence to recruit and make available coaches for the national selections. "Members of the coaching structures for the national teams are recruited either on the basis of a contract signed with the President of the Cameroon Football Federation, after compulsory advice from the Minister in charge of sports, or on the basis of being made available by the State", the Minister recalled, implying that Fécafoot, as part of this process, has nevertheless contributed by proposing candidates to succeed Rigobert Song.
Exorbitant salary demands
The problem, according to Mouelle Kombi, was that the candidates presented salary demands that had never been paid to a coach of the Indomitable Lions." The three applications submitted by you each made exorbitant salary demands, ranging from around 1 billion FCFA (1,500,000 euros) to 1.6 billion FCFA (2,500,000 euros) a year in remuneration (excluding various bonuses), i.e. an average of 82 million FCFA to 132 million FCFA a month respectively. This represents excessive amounts ", writes the Minister to Samuel Eto'o.
In addition, he added, "your demand that financial and logistical resources be made available two weeks before the candidates put forward by Fécafoot were due to take up their duties made it difficult to support their salary demands, not to say dissuade them from doing so, given the State's current severe budgetary constraints ".
Despite the disagreements, the Minister insisted that the State had assumed its responsibilities as "owner of the Indomitable Lions". Mouelle Kombi is adamant that the State intends to move forward with the process "in view of the imminence of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. "We would like to inform you that the Ministry of Sport has already taken all the necessary, appropriate and useful measures [...] for the new coach to take up his duties", the Minister asserted. This correspondence marks a new stage in the conflict between the government and Fécafoot, highlighting the differences of opinion and growing tensions between the two entities.
