FECAFOOT Made No Attempt To Dialogue With Antonio Conceicao, After The Wrongful Termination Of His Contract

In April 2022, PM Dion Ngute recommended that FECAFOOT Should resolve the problem with Conceicao through dialogue,   but the advice was ignored

 Now the Gov’t has used tax payers’ money (1.2 billion FCFA) to pay for FECAFOOT’s reckless decision to breach contract with Coach Conceicao

 The problem with the President of FECAFOOT, Samuel ETO’O FILS, in the Conceicao Affair was not only about the wrong decision he took to terminate the contract of the head coach of the Indomitable Lions, but it was also with the way it was done. Worst sill, it was with the decision by Eto’o and his Federation to play tough than dialogue with Conceicao, after the abusive termination of his contract.

The professional approach would have been for FECAFOOT to inform Coach Antonio CONCEICAO Da SILVA OLIVEIRA, of the Federation’s decision to terminate his contract. And then the two parties, FECAFOOT and Conceicao (and his lawyer), would have then sat down, discuss and probably agree on the financial package that the Federation would give as compensation for ending the contract prematurely. It is very likely that if this discussion took place between FECAFOOT and Conceicao, the coach would have accepted an amount, less than 500 million FCFA. There would have been a peaceful separation.

But the way Eto’o Fils and his FECAFOOT sacked Coach Antonio Conceicao, was the most brutal and abusive way that a head coach of the Lions had ever been sacked by FECAFOOT.  As Conceicao said, FECAFOOT did not even bother to contact him on the decision to end the contract.  Conceicao said after AFCON that Cameroon hosted from January 9 – February 6, 2022, he travelled to Europe for a break with the knowledge of FECAFOOT, only to hear like other members of the public over foreign TV channels, that Song Bahanag had been appointed Head Coach of the Indomitable Lions, which meant that he (Conceicao) had been replaced or dismissed.  Even then, FECAFOOT did not get to him.

Antonio Conceicao’s lawyer wrote a number of correspondences to FECAFOOT to express his disappointment with what had happened, and to demand the payment of his dues, following the wrongful termination of his contract.  But Eto’o and his FECAFOOT kept silent, as if what was done to Conceicao was right.  Also, FECAFOOT failed to learn anything from the fact that each time that the lawyer of Conceicao addressed a correspondence to the Federation, he would copy FIFA.

PM Dion Ngute Foresaw Trouble, And Advised For Dialogue With Conceicao

Meanwhile following a correspondence that was addressed to the Cameroon Government by Coach Antonio Conceicao to complain about the abusive termination of his contract by FECAFOOT, Prime Minister Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, after meticulously examining the complaint, asked the Secretary General at the Prime Ministry to address a correspondence to the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Prof Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, on the issue.  In the correspondence that was dated April 8, 2022, the Secretary General told the Sports Minister, that the Prime Minister wanted to know what FECAFOOT was doing to resolve the problem with Coach Conceicao. Prime Minister Dion Ngute strongly recommended that FECAFOOT should resolve the problem with the former coach of the Lions, Antonio Conceicoa, through dialogue, and cautioned against the matter been allowed to go to court.

The Minister of Sports sent a copy of the correspondence from the Prime Minister’s Office, to the President of FECAFOOT, Samuel Eto’o Fils. But there was silence at that end on the issue. On April 26, 2022, the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Mouelle Kombi, addressed a correspondence to the President of FECAFOOT, Samuel Eto’o, in which the minister reminded him of the Prime Minister’s correspondence. The minister asked the FECAFOOT President to let him know what the Federation was doing to try to resolve the problem with Antonio Conceicao, so that he could in turn brief his hierarchy, that is, the Prime Minister and Head of Government. Again, there was silence on the part of the FECAFOOT President.

Antonio Conceicao Takes Matter To FIFA

When FECAFOOT continued to shelve Antonio Conceicao’s correspondences through his lawyer, Conceicao turned to FIFA, and pleaded for its intervention in the matter.  FIFA accepted to handle the matter. When a specialized organ of FIFA, that is the Player Status Chamber, examined the matter, the decision at the end was that FECAFOOT should pay the equivalent of over one billion francs CFA that Conceicao was demanding from the Federation. The amount included compensation and penalties to Coach Conceicao and his assistants, for the abusive termination of the contract by FECAFOOT, and the brutal way it was done. There was no doubt too that FIFA was very disappointment with the very unfair manner in which FECAFOOT treated Coach Conceicao.  The Federation sacked the coach without any notification, and ignored his correspondences for dialogue after the wrongful termination of his contract. That was terrible!

Meanwhile FECAFOOT rejected the FIFA decision that the Federation should pay the sacked Head Coach of the   Indomitable Lions, over one billion francs FCFA.

 FECAFOOT Files Appeal At CAS / Biggest Amount Ever Demanded From FECAFFOT.

FECAFOOT filed an appeal against the FIFA judgment at the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS, in Lousanne, Switzerland.  Suffice to say CAS in the ruling on the matter maintained the decision that was taken by FIFA, that FECAFOOT pays Conceicao over 1 billion FCFA. The matter was taken to the Swiss Federal Court, and FECAFOOT still lost the case.  But FECAFOOT would not pay the over 1 billion FCFA that the Federation was ordered to pay to Conceicao, for the wrongful and brutal termination of his contract.

It should be noted that the  precise amount that FECAFOOT was ordered to pay as demanded by  Antonio Conceicao, was 1,850,895.89 Euros, that is, an equivalent today of 1, 212, 336, 810 francs CFA (one billion, two hundred and twelve million, three hundred and thirty six thousand, eight hundred and ten francs CFA).  It should as well as  be noted that this is the biggest amount of money that FECAFOOT had ever been charged by FIFA or CAS to pay to a coach for the wrongful termination of his contract.   In fact FECAFOOT before then had never been asked to pay even up to half of that amount.

FECAFOOT Would Not Pay The Money To Conceicao

Meanwhile, FECAFOOT said it was in financial difficulties, and could not pay the over 1 billion FCFA that it was ordered to pay to Antonio Conceicao. But then the President of the Federation, Samuel Eto’o, could not like his predecessors did, go to the same Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Prof Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, whom he publicly humiliated over the controversial decision to sack Coach Conceicao, to demand for help. The fanatical supporters, of Eto’o Fils, that had hailed his public humiliation of Minister Mouelle Kombi, were also now went silent. The issue became a nightmare to FECAFOOT and the Cameroon Government, as FIFA threatened to suspend Cameroon.

As the Chief of the Communication Service at the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education, Gabriel MAGA, explained in a communiqué dated February 21, 2025, following the sentences slammed on FECAFOOT successively by the Player Status  Chamber of FIFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sports at Lousanne  and the Swiss Federal Court, relating to the abusive termination of the contract of Antonio Conceicao,  FECAFOOT was unable to pay the compensation and  penalties  to Conceicao and his assistants, “despite  the deadlines and reminders by FIFA on January  12, 2024 and December  13, 2024”.  After the last reminder on December 13, 2024, it was clear that FIFA had run out of patience on the issue, and that sanction was the next thing to follow.

Gov’t Intervenes With Tax Payer’s Money 

In the face of the increasing threat of suspension  of Cameroon by FIFA,  the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, decided that the Cameroon tax payers’ should foot the huge ‘bill’ of  the reckless decision that was taken by  Samuel Eto’o’s and his FECAFOOT, to abusively terminate the contract of Coach Antonio Conceicao.

In a correspondence dated February 18, 2025 addressed to the Minister of Finance by the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh,  the Secretary General   demanded that the Finance Minister should as a matter of urgency, pay the sum of 1,850,895.89 Euros which is approximately 1, 2012, 336, 810 FCFA (One billion, two hundred and twelve million, three hundred and thirty six thousand, eight hundred and ten francs CFA), to the former coach of the Indomitable Lions, following the wrongful termination of his work contract by the Cameroon Football Federation.

The Chief of the Communication Service in the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education, Gabriel Maga, explained in his February 21, 2025 press release, that the decision taken by Government to pay the compensation and penalties to former head coach of the Indomitable Lions, Antonio Concercao, in the place of FECAFOOT that was unable to pay, was meant to preserve the image of Cameroon football in the face of the threats of suspension of Cameroon from FIFA and CAF competitions.  He invited FECAFOOT to be more responsible in dealing with coaches of the national team, and that the Federation should strive to avoid reckless decisions that can tarnish the image of the country, and also drain financial resources from the State coffer.