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GOAL | FIFA has been urged to intervene and remove Samuel Eto’o from his role as president of the Cameroon Football Association (FECAFOOT).
The pressure to have the former Barcelona striker ousted from his post comes from a group of Cameroon officials in the wake of several controversial incidents involving Eto’o.
A letter jointly addressing FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe has questioned why Eto’o is allowed to remain at the helm of the organisation, alleging that he has “illegally” imposed himself on FECAFOOT.
CAF opened an investigation into “certain alleged improper conduct” of Eto’o in August after leaked audio implicated the ex-Cameroon star in a match-fixing scandal despite his denials. The 42-year-old claimed he was telling a friend who invests in football that he “would have done everything possible to avoid any refereeing errors against him”.
According to the letter written by the group, which includes the likes of Pierre Semengue, president of the Professional Football League of Cameroon and ex-FECAFOOT vice-president Henry Njalla Quan Junior, the fact that no action has yet been taken against the FECAFOOT chief “lies at the very heart of football’s issues of integrity, ethics and fair play”.
The letter also mentions the suspended prison sentence Eto’o received in a tax fraud case, saying that according to FECAFOOT’s statutes, he should have vacated his role after the ruling.
It also references the incident in which he kneed a man in the face during the World Cup in Qatar, which was caught on video.
Eto’o’s deal with sports betting company 1XBET is another point of contention, as the letter alleges that it is “in flagrant violation” of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
Pointing to the Spanish Football Federation’s (RFEF) swift attempts to remove Luis Rubiales as president following his kiss on Jenni Hermoso after the Women’s World Cup, the letter challenges world football’s governing body, saying: “Not a word has been heard from FIFA despite numerous complaints and reminders from Cameroonian football actors.
“How can FIFA continue to remain silent in the face of so many scandals that compromise public confidence in sporting ethics and the sincerity of matches?”
It continued: “The sad reality of this two-speed management of almost identical situations is that Africa remains a kind of enclave where you can take liberties with the ethics and exemplarity that sports leaders should embody,” the letter says.
“Can you imagine FIFA and UEFA remaining silent when the president of a European football federation is suspected of match-fixing, with audio recordings to back it up?
“Can you imagine FIFA and UEFA keeping quiet while the president of a European soccer federation signed a personal ambassadorship contract with a sports betting operator?”