The president of the Cameroon association faces several allegations of corruption. Call recordings suggest Eto’o is involved in match-fixing.
Cameroon’s association president Samuel Eto’o has been drawing attention to himself for some time with his inglorious behavior.
Jonathan Moscrop / Getty
Samuel Eto’o was never a simple guy. At FC Barcelona, an incendiary speech against then teammate Ronaldinho and coach Frank Rijkaard, with which he disrupted the club’s idyll during a harmless book presentation, is unforgettable. Rijkaard’s successor Josep Guardiola was so afraid of the Cameroonian star striker’s impulsiveness and eccentricity that he rejected him after a year together despite historic successes. Eto’o responded in his own way and immediately won the Champions League with Inter Milan.
The personality of the record goalscorer from Cameroon always seemed as straightforward as Eto’o’s game – no center forward before or after him in Barcelona practiced the club’s typical pressing so furiously. The four-time African footballer was known as someone who wore his heart on his sleeve and stood up for what he believed in. “I will run like a black man to live like a white man,” he said upon arrival in Barcelona. In 2006, he was one of the first players in the world to show the courage to threaten to leave the pitch because of racist shouting at a match in Zaragoza.
In 2006, Samuel Eto’o protested against racist shouts from the audience in Zaragoza.
Eto’o is involved in several scandals
Eto’o has now headed the Cameroonian football association Fecafoot for a good two years. He has also remained uncomfortable as an official – but hardly in a way that would make him a hero and role model as he once was. The once incorruptible Eto’o finds himself increasingly exposed to new allegations of corruption. He apparently only uses his directness to exploit personal power, eliminate critics and enforce sinister interests.
At the 2022 World Cup, Eto’o caused a real scandal when he beat up an Algerian YouTuber before visiting a stadium. The victim later explained that he had asked Eto’o whether Cameroon had bribed the referee of the crucial qualifying match against Algeria. The controversial game management of Gambian Bakary Gassamba led to a – rejected – protest at FIFA, which was accompanied by fan demonstrations in front of the Zurich headquarters.
The episode would be dismissed as folklore were it not for revelations from Cameroon pointing to match-fixing in Eto’o’s sphere of influence. Recorded conversations were already made public in the summer, suggesting that the president helped Victoria United win promotion to the first division by influencing the referees. Victoria United is owned by a close supporter of Eto’o, Valentine Nkwain. Both he and Eto’o denied the allegations.
At the same time, however, a dossier about the conditions in Fecafoot was submitted to FIFA, from which the US portal “The Athletic” published new details this week. According to these, the former association vice-president Henry Njalla Quan junior uses audio files and emails to support the suspicion that the Eto’o Connection commissioned a smear campaign against him, as part of which he was personally threatened with violence. Njalla’s club NQSA deliberately drove her to ruin by controlling the referees.
Njalla Quan resigned from his position in the association, where he represented the English-speaking parts of the country, in July. A year earlier, Secretary General Benjamin Didier Banlock had resigned in protest against the widespread methods and the refusal to reform. Addressing Eto’o, he wrote: “I will not be the president’s dancer,” even if that “seems to be your only wish.”
Cameroon’s star goalie André Onana is leaving early
The affairs since then have included, among others: Eto’o’s advertising contract with a betting provider – actually forbidden according to the code of conduct for officials. The sudden departure of star goalie André Onana during the World Cup before the game against Switzerland – “Eto’o has a non-professional problem with him,” said Njalla Quan. Or most recently the appointment of the largely unknown teenager Wilfried Nathan Doualla from Eto’o’s buddy club Victoria United to the African Cup.
There, Cameroon, coached by former defense chief Rigobert Song, failed at the weekend against Nigeria after just one win in four games. That’s no wonder, says association critic Njalla Quan: “What should we expect from a leader who promotes gambling and hires a fellow gambler and brand ambassador from the same betting company as a national coach?” Song previously worked for the same provider; Typical of the situation, says Njalla Quan, who says of Eto’o: “We are being cheated by someone who takes advantage of people’s genuine love for him.”