Cameroon suspend Eto'o for 15 matches
Reuters - Friday 16 December 2011, 21:47
Cameroon banned skipper
Samuel Eto'o for 15 matches on Friday and vice-captain Eyong
Enoh for two games after they persuaded team mates not to travel
to Algeria for a friendly last month.
"Samuel Eto'o, in his role as captain, incited his team
mates to refuse to travel to Algeria," the Cameroon football
federation said on its website.
"[The disciplinary council] therefore decides that [he] is
suspended for 15 matches from the men's senior national team."
Cameroon's players went on strike in November, forcing the
abandonment of the friendly in Algiers, saying they had not
received money promised for their appearance in a four-nation
tournament in Morocco the previous weekend.
The federation said 30-year-old Eto'o, four-times African
Footballer of the Year, could not explain why the players
refused to turn out for the national team after Algeria and the
Cameroon sports ministry offered a way out of the crisis.
The Algerian football federation had promised to give the
Cameroon team 30,000 euros on arrival in Algiers while
the ministry despatched 15 million CFA francs ($29,800) for the
squad the day before the match was scheduled to take place.
The federation said Eto'o was disrespectful to the sports
ministry and the federation, while Ajax Amsterdam midfielder
Enoh, 25, "lacked respect for the vice-president of Fecafoot."
LAST STRAW
Eto'o, who hit the headlines when he signed for Russian
Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala from Inter Milan for a
record salary in August, said the latest crisis was the last
straw, the federation statement added.
It said Eto'o accused the football authorities of
incompetence, dishonesty and injustice towards the players who
they treated like "kids."
The loss of Eto'o is a huge blow to Cameroon's hopes of
qualifying for the 2013 African Nations Cup and 2014 World Cup.
The Nations Cup qualifiers begin on February 28 with a
first-round match against Guinea Bissau. Cameroon's first World
Cup qualifier will be in June against Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Cameroon surprisingly failed to qualify for next year's
Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and new coach Denis
Lavagne has just started rebuilding his squad.
In a separate case, Cameroon's Tottenham Hotspur left-back
Benoit Assou-Ekotto was fined one million CFA francs for failing
to join the squad in Marrakesh for the four-nation tournament.
The players have 10 days to appeal.