“If Eto’o had brought in enough sponsors, the state would no longer have a say”.

From the perspective of journalist Alain Denis Ikoul, the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) can harness its current energy towards the development of youth football in the country.

“I am fundamentally opposed to state interference in the management of football, but it would be dishonest to say that the state should invest so much money in football without having a say. When I say this, it is clear that the problem with the federation today is its president who, in nearly three years, has still not managed to free Fecafoot from this financial over-reliance on the state,” comments the Cfoot journalist.

“If Samuel Eto’o had brought enough sponsors to our federation so that it could pay the coach itself, all Cameroonians would unanimously agree that the state should no longer have a say. Unfortunately, what we see is that one of the first major acts of the president was to sign a personal contract with a sports betting company. When did he prioritize the interests of Cameroonian football?”, he questions. Fecafoot could instead deploy all this energy to develop amateur football, which is slowly dying.

“Have you ever heard that the French state pays Didier Deschamps? Or that the German state pays Julian Nagelsmann and gives two billion to the German federation to go to the World Cup? If the federation wants to have both autonomy and greater independence, it must be able to finance all its activities without relying on the state,” he adds.

“And this is what Cameroonians expected from Samuel Eto’o, but we are surprised to see that this executive is more interested in managing what they did not contribute to produce, that is, state money, and it is deplorable. Fecafoot could, however, deploy all this energy to develop amateur football, which is slowly dying,” concludes Alain Denis Ikoul.