Sports Minister, Prof Mouelle Kombi, Was Publicly Humiliated By FECAFOOT President In February 2022, For Cautioning Against Abusive Termination of Coach Conceicao’s Contract.

The real reason why FECAFOOT President, Samuel Eto’o, pushed out Conceicao, was a promise he made to Song Bahanag  to appoint him  head coach of the Indomitable Lions

 This, even though, Song Bahanag had failed as coach of U 23 and Lions A.

There is no doubt that several Cameroonians assumed that Coach Antonio CONCEICAO Da SILVA OLIVEIRA, failed in his mission as head coach of r the senior male national football team (Indomitable Lions), since Cameroon failed to win the African Cup of Nations, AFCON, which it hosted from January 9 – February 6, 2022.  But the people in the streets were talking without knowing the real terms of the contract that FECAFOOT signed with Conceicao.

It would be recalled that the first two year contract that FECAFOOT signed with Conceicao, ended in 2021. The football Federation, which then had as President, Seidou MBPOMBO NJOYA, launched a bid for the recruitment of a coach for the indomitable Lions, and asked for applications. Many applications were received, with most of the applicants being Europeans. Cameroonian born former football star, Patrick Mboma, who is based in France, also deposited his application. Curiously enough, Antonio Conceicao was also among the applicants.

Curiously still, the Seidou Mbombo Njoya’s FECAFOOT, ended up recruiting the same Antonio Conceicao. The Minister Of Sport and Physical Education, Prof Narcisse  Mouelle Kombi, endorsed  the  recruitment and new contract.  This raised the question, as to why FECAFOOT had wasted all that time and resources, as well as given applicants all the trouble, whereas they would have just gone ahead to renew the contract of Conceicao. However the argument of FECAFOOT was that the terms of the contract that was signed with Conceicao in September 2021, was different from the contract of the first two years. So to FECAFOOT, the contract that was signed with Conceicao in September 2021 was not a renewal of the old contract, but a completely new contract.

Terms Of Contract Did Not Include Winning AFCON   

Meanwhile, in the contract FECAFOOT signed in September 2021 with the Portuguese, Antonio Conceicao, the Head Coach of the Indomitable Lions was given a mission to attain three major objectives:

1) That Cameroon should reach the final of the 2021 AFCON that instead held in early 2022.  2) Improve on Cameroon’s position on the FIFA classification. 3) Qualify Cameroon for the 2022 World Cup.

It would definitely surprise many Cameroonians that Conceicao was charged to improve on Cameroon’s performance at the AFCON that the country hosted from January 9 – February 6, 2022, as compared to its first participation in 1972, instead of charging him to win the second AFCON at home.  This meant that it would have been considered a success for Conceicao, if the Lions got to the final of the AFCON that Cameroon hosted in early 2022.  Some football observers however argued that the logic of Seidou Mbombo Njoya’s FECAFOOT, and the Cameroonian sports authorities, was that Cameroon should at least improve on its performance as compared to the 1972 participation, when the country first hosted the AFCON. The first African Cup of Nations, AFCON, that Cameroon hosted was in in 1972, and the Cameroon national team whose captain was Emmanuel Mve Elemva (current President of the South Regional Council), was stopped at the semi – final, and ended the competition in the 3^rd position.

The AFCON that Cameroon hosted in early 2022 was the second that the country hosted, coming 50 years after the first.  Cameroon failed to improve on its performance as compared to 1972, as it still ended on the 3^rd position.  So as far as AFCON was concerned, Coach Conceicao failed to attain the set objective as contained in his contract.

 But Conceicao Had Not Failed Yet In The Entire Mission

Meanwhile, as regard the second objective that was assigned to Coach Conceicao in his contract with FECAFOOT, Cameroon improved its position on the FIFA ranking by six places at the end of February 2022, as compared to its position by the time the contract was signed in September 2021. This meant that Conceicao succeeded in the second- set objective or target that was assigned to him in the contract he signed with FECAFOOT in September 2021.

As regard the third objective that FECAFOOF assigned to Conceicao in the contract, by the end of February 2022, Cameroon was still on course for a world cup ticket, following the important victory that was recorded over Ivory Coast in the crucial match in the group phase, to determine the champion of the group. The match took place at the Japoma Stadium in Douala in October 2021, with the then Cameroonian goal poacher, Karl Toko Ekambi from Lions FC in France, putting a stop to the dream of Ivory Coast that needed just a draw to emerge leader of the group.

Thus Conceicao’s report card by the end of February 2022, showed that out of the three major assignments that were given to him by FECAFOOT in the contract that was signed in September 2021, he had failed to achieve one, but however achieved one, and was still on course in the third assignment.  By FIFA’s way of assessment, Conceicao could not by that end of February 2022 be considered to have failed.

Samuel Eto’o Humiliates Sports Minister

That was why the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Prof Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, declared in an interview over CRTV on February 12, 2022 after AFCON, that Coach Conceicao would be maintained. He cautioned that Cameroon (FECAFOOT) had to avoid the malpractice of breaching the contracts of coaches every now and then, and been leveled heavy fines by the Court of Arbitration for Sports.  The minister was perfectly right. That was wisdom.

But unfortunately, FECAFOOT President, Samuel Eto’o, instead humiliated the Sports Minister, Prof Mouelle Kombi, in public. Eto’o issued a communiqué on February 14, 2022 in which he bluntly told the minister that it was for FECAFOOT to decide the fate of the coach. As usual, the communiqué appeared on social media. The population shouted excitedly, and hailed Eto’o for putting the minister in his place.

It is true that Eto’o was right to say that following FIFA’s text, it was for FECAFOOT to decide whether a coach should stay or go. But considering agreements that FECAFOOT has signed with the State of Cameroon, such a decision has to be taken in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education. So Eto’o would have handled the issue in a diplomatic way, instead of playing to the gallery by ridiculing the member of Government in public.  According to current texts, in a normal situation, the contract of the head coach of the indomitable Lions is jointly signed by the President of FECAFOOT and the Minister of Sports. For one thing, it is the State of Cameroon through the Government that pays members of the technical team of the senior male national football team, and not FECAFOOT.

It would be recalled that it was the Ministry of Sports and physical Education that stepped in and paid the compensations and penalties for wrongful decisions that were taken by the past leaderships of FECAFOOT, to terminate for example the contracts of Coach Hugo Bros as well as Coach Clarence Seedorf, who was the immediate predecessor of Antonio Conceicao.   So it was just normal that the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Mouelle Kombi, caution against committing another act of wrongful termination of the contract of  Coach Antonio Conceicao, that would again lead to FECAFOOT being dragged to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

Eto’o  Appoints Song Bahanag

Meanwhile Minister Mouelle Kombi dragged his feet to endorse the decision by the President of FECAFOOT, Samuel Eto’o, to wrongfully terminate the contract of Antonio Conceicao as Head Coach of the Indomitable Lions. Eto’o turned to his then friends at the Presidency, who then included the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, for intervention. Suffice to say that story ended with a February 28, 2022 communiqué, signed by Ngoh Ngoh, “On The High Instruction of The President of the Republic” who thus endorsed the appointment of Song Bahanag and his team, to take over as the technical team of the Indomitable Lions.   At that stage Minister Mouelle Kombi  had no choice, but to hurriedly visa  Eto’o’s appointment of a new technical team of  the Indomitable Lions, with Rigobert Song Bahanag as “Manager /Selectioner’, on that February 28, 2022.

Eto’o’s supporters celebrated that the he had again floored the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Mouelle Kombi. Also, because of the ‘High Instruction’ that pushed the Sports  Minister to validate the appointments, some people thought that President Biya was the one that decided on the appointments of Song Bahanag and the other members of the technical team. That of course was not true.

Sebastien Migne Was Contacted By Song 

In the appointment of members of the technical team of the Indomitable Lions by FECAFOOT President, Samuel Eto’o, the French man, Sebastien Migne, was appointed “Entraineur / Selectioner’. The issue here is that in an interview with Radio France Internationale, RFI, after his appointment, Sebastien Migne, who was then in France, was asked how his appointment came about. He disclosed that he was first contacted by Rogobert Song Bahanag in the first half of February 2022, and then later by Eto’o. He said he knew Song, and that they first met at the 2019 CHAN  when Song was Head Coach of Lions A,  while he was then a member of the technical team of DR Congo;’ s A team  in the competition.

Sources confirmed that Samuel Eto’o who was accompanied by Song Bahanag on his visit to the Lamido of Garoua, as part of his campaign for the FECAFOOT Elections, had promised Song the post of Head Coach of the Indomitable Lions, if he became President of FECAFOOT. It would be recalled that Song and Eto’o had a very strained relationship for a number of years, over the issue of captainship of the Indomitable Lions. They finally reconciled.

When Eto’o became President of FECAFOOT in December 2021, the two were just waiting for the least opportunity, for the promise to be effected. The failure by the Lions to win the 2021 AFCON that was played from January 9 – February 6, 2022 in Cameroon, was an opportunity for them to exploit. Yet there is no doubt that the FECAFOOT President, Samuel Eto’o, knew well the terms of the contract that his predecessor signed with Coach Conceicao. He thus certainly knew that to appoint Song Bahanag to replace Conceicao then, would be a breach of  the contract that FECAFOOT signed with Conceicao.. Yet, he did it.