Cameroonian journalist Jean-Bruno Tagne did not choose the date of December 13 by chance to publish L’Arnaque (Les Editions du Schabel). This coincides, within two days, with the second anniversary of the election of Samuel Eto’o as president of the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot), on December 11, 2021, against Seidou Mbomba Njoya, the outgoing president . The title is evocative, as is the subtitle: He wanted to restore Cameroonian football to all its greatness, suggesting that the former international striker did not keep all his campaign promises.
The criticism is all the stronger as it comes from an author who knows Samuel Eto’o well. Jean-Bruno Tagne was his campaign director, “on a voluntary basis”, to lead his conquest of Fecafoot. “I published two books in 2010 (Programmed to Fail) and in 2014 (The Tragedy of the Indomitable Lions), where I did not spare him. But, to my great surprise, he asked me to run his campaign. I saw there an enthusiastic man with a project to get our football out of the crisis. However, the president betrayed the candidate’s promises. His mid-term record is bad,” he says today.
Jean-Bruno Tagne, however, recognizes some successes to be credited to the former national team scorer: the proper functioning of the professional championships, the resolution of bonus problems which polluted the life of the national teams or the bringing up to date Cameroonian Ballon d’Or. For the rest, Jean-Bruno Tagne makes a very critical observation, over more than 260 pages, of the first two years of the mandate of Samuel Eto’o better known for his skill in front of goals than for his modesty.
“Decisions that will be expensive”
“Sportingly,” writes the author, “the results of the selections are not very good. He announced that the Lions would win the World Cup in Qatar and it ended with an elimination in the first round. He made decisions that will cost Fecafoot dearly, by dismissing the Portuguese Antonio Conceiçao, who was under contract, after CAN 2022, to replace him with Rigobert Song. » Fecafoot was ordered on November 3 by the Swiss Federal Court to pay 1.6 million euros to its former coach.
Furthermore, “Eto’o has decided to terminate in 2022 the contract which linked the body to the equipment manufacturer Le Coq Sportif, and this could also be expensive if we stick to the first decisions of the French justice system” , indicates the journalist who also returns to the suspicions of match-fixing which weigh on the leader. The broadcast in July of a recorded conversation with Valentine Nkwain, the president of Victoria United (division 2), caused trouble. “If the president of Fecafoot is involved in this story, and has promised to arrange for this club to join League 1, it is extremely serious,” warns Jean-Bruno Tagne.
The author criticizes Samuel Eto’o’s management: “He has an oversized ego. He is a divisive personality. He thinks he has everything he can, decides everything on his own, is essentially surrounded by people who idolize him and never contradict him. » A chapter, entitled “The President’s Prisoners”, discusses the cases of Liliane Mbog Binyet and Perfect Siki, respectively former marketing director and ex-general secretary of Fecafoot, placed in detention following a complaint from their boss.
The first was imprisoned for several days for “financial embezzlement”. The second spent six months in Kondengui prison in Yaoundé, from which he was released on April 27. “I was the subject of a complaint from the president of the federation for having taken documents belonging to the body after my resignation,” says Perfect Siki. I had been appointed by his predecessor and therefore belonged to the other camp. Samuel Eto’o reigns through terror, he seeks to remove all his opponents within the federation and wants to show that he has a long arm. His ego overwhelms everything. »
“You can’t straighten a hunchback.”
Joseph Antoine Bell, the former goalkeeper of the Indomitable Lions and whose relations with Samuel Eto’o are now non-existent after having been notoriously tense, has not yet read the book, but has had some echoes of it. “What Jean-Bruno Tagne says from the inside is seen from the outside… Eto’o doesn’t need a plot to harm him, he does that very well on his own. You can’t straighten a hunchback! It is being launched like a train that will eventually derail, with the sad consequences that this will have for Cameroonian football. »
Since the publication of the book, neither Samuel Eto’o nor the federation have officially reacted. “We were busy preparing for the Golden Ball, preparing for the selection before the African Cup of Nations (CAN). You have to take the time to read it, and then it will be decided to react or not,” Jean-Marie Nkoussa, head of the federation’s communications department, responded to Le Monde Afrique. Pierre Crépin Nyamsi, candidate for election in 2021 before withdrawing in favor of the former FC Barcelona and Inter Milan scorer, is, however, more verbose.
This doctor in information and communication sciences offers a radically different perception from that presented by Jean-Bruno Tagne. “Samuel’s assessment is satisfactory. He decided to fire Antonio Conceiçao and replace him with Rigobert Song, and it is not surprising that a new president chooses who he wants to work with. He denounced the contract with Le Coq Sportif because this partnership was not good for the body. His management? But have you heard his staff complain? He has restored the importance of footballers and the federation has seen the arrival of new advertisers,” estimates the academic, who sees in Samuel Eto’o “a perfectionist who wants the best for his country’s football. I would have preferred that Jean-Bruno Tagne waited until the end of the mandate to make a real assessment. » The author rightly confides that he will publish a new book on this subject in two years.