Cameroon: half a billion CFA francs from the State divides Fécafoot and the clubs

They have said it in barely veiled terms. In Cameroon, a number of presidents of clubs in the top-flight football championship no longer trust the Cameroonian Football Federation when it comes to financial management.

An example? The annual subsidy of 560 million FCFA promised by the State to support professional football is reigniting tension between the clubs and the body led by Samuel Eto’o. While the federation president has referred the matter to the Presidency of the Republic with a view to releasing the funds, the clubs are calling for a more transparent redistribution and condemning a lack of dialogue.

Invited by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, to a meeting in Yaoundé a few days ago, club representatives seized the opportunity to air their grievances. The meeting brought to light built-up frustrations, not only over the subsidy, which they say does not always reach its destination in full, but also over the overall governance of Fécafoot.

“We thank the government for this initiative, which allowed us to reveal everything that was hidden. We talked about the 2022 World Cup revenue that we never received. We talked about sponsorship. Last season, for example, out of the 48 million FCFA promised as part of the sharing of the Top sponsor subsidy, my club received only 10 million FCFA. The situation is even worse with gate receipts. This opacity must stop ”, a club president said. “Bamboutos FC sometimes generates more than a million FCFA per match. Yet for the whole of last season, Fécafoot paid us only 1.18 million ”, says Pascal Dissock, general manager of Bamboutos FC.

Pay the funds directly to the clubs

At the heart of their demands, the club presidents want direct management of State subsidies. Norbert Nya Nkamendjo, president of Fauve Azur Élite, insists: “This consultation was necessary given the seriousness of the situation. We made proposals. If the State has a subsidy it wants to pay us, we have well-structured clubs. We want that money paid directly into our accounts ”.

Along the same lines, the national footballers’ union of Cameroon (Synafooc) makes similar recommendations, notably: “that the Professional Football League be restored to run the championships ” and “that the subsidy granted by the State be paid directly into the clubs’ bank accounts and that the money received be used exclusively to pay players’ salaries ”.

Lack of dialogue

However, beyond that demand, the clubs also condemn a non-existent dialogue with Fécafoot, which, they say, avoids consulting club officials and prefers to deal with Pascal Abunde, president of their Association. He was recently co-opted onto Fécafoot’s Executive Committee by Samuel Eto’o and is seen as a poorly representative voice for the clubs’ interests. “The clubs have had things to say for a long time. Unfortunately, Fécafoot, which exists thanks to the clubs, refuses dialogue ”, says Mathurin Ambassa, representative of Canon de Yaoundé.

The ball is in Paul Biya’s court

He went on to criticise the management of partnerships: “Fécafoot imposes sponsors on us at the expense of what we can bring in. And when we advertise certain multinationals without receiving in return what should be paid to the clubs, you can see that we are in a muddle ”.

At the end of the meeting, the Sports Minister assured his guests that all the grievances raised would be recorded in a report, which will then be passed on to the Head of State, Paul Biya.