By Andrew Warshaw
September 10 – Armed security forces have been drafted in to protect the offices of the Cameroon Football Federation in Yaounde after angry fans threatened to ransack the building following a potentially pivotal defeat.
The so-called Indomitable Lions, three-times winners of the African Nations Cup, were anything but after losing 2-0 to tiny Cape Verde Islands on Saturday (September 8) in the first leg of the final round of qualifiers for next year’s finals in South Africa.
Fans demonstrated outside the offices after the giant-killing result, leading to the deployment of police and military personnel.
Under-fire coach Denis Lavagne insisted that the deficit could still be overcome in the home leg.
“I think we can win that with a big score,” he told state radio.
“We are in a difficult situation but everything is still possible.”
The unexpected defeat has heaped humiliation on a country which made World Cup finals history as the first from Africa to reach the quarterfinals, in 1990, and which won Olympic gold in Sydney in 2000.
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