By Andrew Warshaw
July 5 – Cameroon’s hopes of competing at next year’s World Cup finals have been dealt a potentially damaging blow after the country’s national federation, FECAFOOT, was suspended by FIFA in the latest case of football’s world governing body clamping down on government interference, an issue that shows no sign of abating, especially in Africa.
The ban follows the annulling by a judicial authority of Iya Mohammed’s overwhelming re-election as President of Fecafoot and threatens the immediate future of one of Africa’s most successful footballing nations who have competed six times at the World Cup.
Iya was re-elected despite being in jail where he facing criminal charges by the Cameroon authorities for alleged financial mismanagement. But Fifa takes the view that annulling the election breaks its strict rules outlawing government interference in footballing affairs.
“The FIFA statutes oblige member associations to manage their affairs independently and with no influence from third parties,” Fifa said in a statement.
“During the period of suspension, FECAFOOT may not be represented in any regional, continental or international competitions, including at club level, or in friendly matches,” FIFA said.
“In addition, neither FECAFOOT nor any of its members or officials may benefit from any FIFA or CAF development programmes, courses or training during the suspension period.”
Fifa said a committee would be set up to revise FECAFOOT’s statutes and organise elections by March next year and that the ban would be lifted once the authorities “allow the new normalisation committee to enter the FECAFOOT headquarters and to carry out its activities unhindered”.
But if that does not happen by Sept. 6, said Fifa, then Cameroon will not be able to play their final World Cup qualifier against Libya and could then be expelled from the rest of the qualification process for next year’s finals.
Interestingly, the emergency committee that imposed the ban did not include, since he is from Cameroon, Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou who is also a Fifa executive committee member and must be sorely embarrassed by the ongoing affair in his own country.
Ironically, the Fifa ban imposed came within minutes of Cameroon having their hopes boosted by the news that they would go top of their World Cup qualifying group as a result of last month’s 2-0 defeat by Togo being turned into a 3-0 win since their opponents fielded an ineligible player and had three points deducted.
Otherwise known as The Indomitable Lions, Cameroon memorably became the first African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals in 1990 but have been plagued since then by problems on and off the pitch and missed out on both the 2012 and 2013 African Nations Cup finals.
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