FECAFOOT Is Notorious For Abusive Termination Of The Contracts of Coaches, While Cameroon Tax Payers Have Been The Ones Footing The Bills

  Samuel Eto’o’s FECAFOOT provocatively recalls that before Conceicao, the State had paid compensations to Janvier Clemente, Volke Finke, Hugo Bros, and Clarence Seedorf

 It is as if to say that it is normal for FECAFOOT to abusively terminate the contract of the coach of the Lions, knowing that the Gov’t will end up using the tax payers’ money to pay for penalties.

 One of the biggest r faults that successive management of FECAFOOT have committed in the last 15 years, has been the abusive or wrongful termination of the contacts of coaches of the senior male national football team (Indomitable Lions). Also, the matter has always ended up at the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and with FECAFOOT loosing each and every case, and being ordered to pay millions of francs CFA to each of the sacked coaches as compensations, or as compensations and penalties, for the abusive termination of their contacts.

It should be noted that if a coach fails to attain the objectives as were agreed in the contract he signed with FECAFOOT, the Federation has the right to sack him. Let’s assume for example assume that FECAFOOT recruits a coach now and the sole mission assigned to him is to qualify the Lions for the next world cup. If the Lions fail to qualify of course the coach knows he has failed in his assignment.   The coach in such a situation would not protest or go to court if sacked. He might even pack his bag and leave before he is formally sacked by the Federation. But if a coach is sacked by the Federation in violation of the terms of the contract that was signed with him, that is where there is a problem.

The Real Cause Of The Problem                                                                  

The main reason, behind the continuous and wrongful termination of the contracts of coaches by FECAFOOT, is that anybody that comes in as President of FECAFOOT, wants to push out by all means the coach that was appointed by his predecessor for the Lions, and appoint his own coach.  Apparently there is also a big financial interest in the deals.

Worse still, the successive FECAFOOT Presidents, do worsen things with their wrong approach to terminate the contracts of the coaches they come in and meet. It should be said that the termination of the contracts of coaches is not a new thing in football. In Europe for example, we hear from time to the time the termination of contracts of coaches. But the difference is that one rarely finds a situation where the termination of the contract of a coach, ends up in court. This is because things are done in a professional way.  A Federation or a club would inform a coach that though his contract is still valid, they don’t want to continue with him again, for one reason or the other. The two parties would discuss the terms of separation, especially the financial terms. The two parties would at the end of the day arrive at an agreement, the coach is paid whatever is agreed, and he leaves. No fight, no noise, no court. This is professionalism.

The Sacking Of Clemente, Finke, And Hugo Bros. 

But with the Cameroon Football Federation, the story has been different for several years. No professionalism, too much amateurism in the way FECAFOOT always separate with coaches, most of whom have been foreign coaches. Coach Janvier CLEMENTE and Coach Volke FINKE successively suffered this fate. Each of them ended up dragging FECAFOOT to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS, in Lousanne, Switzerland. Clemente ended up with a compensation equivalent to 200 million FCFA, while Volke Finke received the sum equivalent to 325 million FCFA as compensation. In both cases, the then FECAFOOT leaderships claimed that the Federation had no money to pay, and the State of Cameroon through the Government, ended up using the Cameroon tax payers’ money to pay for the compensations. This was in a bid to avoid sanction, or better still the suspension of Cameroon by the world football governing body, FIFA, from all FIFA competitions as well as those of the Confederation of African Football, CAF.

FECAFOOT even sacked Coach Hugo Bros who won the 2017 African Cup of Nations, AFCON, which was hosted by neighbouring Gabon.  He dragged FECAFOOT to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.  At the end of the case, the court ordered FECAFOOT to pay Hugo Bros the sum equivalent to 148 million FCFA for the wrongful termination of his contract. FECAFOOT cried that it did not have money, and finally it was the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education that used the tax payers’ money to pay the compensation to Hugo Bros, to avoid the suspension of Cameroon from international matches, by the World governing football body, FIFA.

Clarence Seedorf And Patrick Kluvert

It was the same thing later with the Dutch man and former international football player, Clarence Seedorf, who was recruited to replace Hugo Bros as head coach of the Indomitable Lions. Seedorf was with his Dutch brother, Patrick Kluvert, who is also a former international player.  After the mediocre performance of the Cameroon national football team at the African Cup of Nations that Egypt hosted in 2019, Seedorf and Kluvert were fired. They both sued FECFOOT for wrongful termination of their contracts. They won the case, and FECAFOOT was ordered to pay Seedorf the sum equivalent to 207 million FCFA and Kluvert the sum equivalent to 100 million FCFA, for the wrongly termination of the contracts.  Again, FECAFOOT cried out that there was no money to pay the compensations, and the Government again used the tax payers’ money to pay the compensations.

A Number Of Things Taken Into Consideration  

It should be noted that there are a number of things that are taken into consideration by the Court of Arbitration for Sports as well as FIFA, when looking at the compensation or compensation plus penalties, to be paid by a Federation to a coach for abusive or wrongful termination of his contract.  As for compensation, the monthly salary of the coach and the number of months that were remaining for his contract to end for example, are some of the things taken into consideration, when looking at compensation to be paid to a coach for the wrongful termination of his contract.  As for penalties to be paid, the way the termination was done for example, matters.  Thus some of the things taken into consideration are the way the coach was prematurely sacked, how the Federation threated him or reacted to him during that period, and so on.

In the case of Clarence Seedorf and his Dutch brother, Patrick Kluvert for example, FECAFOOT which was headed  then by Seidou Mbombo Njoya , expressed discontent to them about the poor performance of the Indomitable Lions at the 2019 AFCON in Egypt.  In fact FECAFOOT made Seedorf to know that he was not wanted again as head coach of the indomitable Lions. So Seedorf who left Egypt after the poor performance of the Lions at the AFCON and flew straight to his country, definitely knew that it was over between him and Cameroon. So his replacement as head coach of the Lions did not come to him as a surprise.  However Seedorf’s sacking, according to the terms of the contract he signed with FECAFOOT, was wrong, and so he dragged FECAFOOT to CAS.

Enter Samuel Eto’o Fils

Cameroon’s football icon, Samuel Eto’o  Fils,  is on record to had blasted FECAFOOT Presidents in recent years of  “amateurism”.  So, sports observers had expected Eto’o to exhibit a high sense of professionalism in the handling of issues, when he became President of FECAFOOT, following his election on December 11, 2021.  But the way he started off, including the way he so wrongfully or abusively terminated the contract of the then Head Coach of the Indomitable Lions, Antonio CONCEICAO Da SILVA OLIVEIRA, after the African Nations Cup that Cameroon hosted from January 9 to February 6, 2022, left many asking questions as to whether he too was not suffering from amateurism, or something even worse.

In fact Coach Conceicao was sacked by Eto’o, in the most abusive, brutal and cruel manner in the history of FECAFOOT.  FECAFOOT did not even notify Coach Concecao that they did not want him again, or that he would be replaced. After the AFCON, Conceicao travelled to his country, Portugal, for a break, with the knowledge of FECAFOOT, only to later hear that he had been replaced. Suffice to say the matter ended up going to FIFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and the Swiss Federal Court.

No Remorse By FECAFOOT

Following the reckless decision that the President of FECAFOOT, Samuel Eto’o, took in February 2022 to abusively breach the contract of Coach Conceicao, over one billion francs CFA of the Cameroon tax payers’ money, was last week used by the Government to pay as compensation and penalties to Antonio Coinceicao and his assistants. This is the biggest amount that has ever been paid as compensation and penalties for the abusive termination of  the contract of a head coach of the Indomitable Lions. Not even half of that amount has ever been paid before to a coach.

In a communiqué issued by the Chief of Communication at FECAFOOT on February 23, 2025 after the payment, the Federation showed no remorse. The Federation instead recalled that the Government in the past also paid compensations to Janvier Clemente, Volke Flinke, Hugo Bros and Clarence Seedorf.  This thus looks like to the Federation, it is normal to abusively breach the contract of the coach of the Indomitable Lions. After all, at the end, it is always the tax payers that foot the bills.