Tuesday, February 6, 2024 – The Cameroon Football Federation has rejected Samuel Eto'o's resignation as president after disappointing AFCON last-16 exit.
Eto'o, one of the greatest Cameroonian footballers in
all-time, scored 56 goals in 118 caps for his country.
He took on the presidency of Fecafoot in December 2021. But
his reign has been marred by several controversies.
Eto'o reportedly has an ongoing feud with Andre Onana which
has seen the Man United keeper endure a toxic relationship with his
national team.
This included the 27-year-old being sent home from
Cameroon's World Cup squad in 2022 and retiring from international football,
before reversing his decision last year.
He was also involved in a violent altercation with a
supporter in Qatar, while a recent report in The Athletic alleged
that Eto'o and his close aides have been accused of being involved in
match-fixing, abuse of power, physical threats, inciting violence and spreading
false information in Cameroon, with CAF said to be looking into various claims.
Eto'o and his lawyers have previously denied the claims, labelling them
'calumnious rumours'.
Meanwhile, he pleaded guilty to a $3.8m (£2.96m) tax fraud
in June 2022 in relation to his image rights while at Barcelona, with
Eto'o handed a suspended 22-month prison sentence and fined $1.8m (£1.4m).
Following a disappointing AFCON tournament that saw Rigobert
Song's side survive through the group stages following a dramatic win over
Gambia before a 2-0 loss to Nigeria in the last-16, Eto'o tendered his
resignation.
However, in a statement on Monday, Fecafoot announced they
had rejected Eto'o's resignation.
'The Executive Committee of
the Cameroon Football Federation held a session this Monday, February 5 at the
Yaounde Hilton Hotel,' they said.
'The agenda focused on
evaluating the performance of the senior men's national team at the 2023 Africa
Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
'At the beginning of the
meeting, the President of the Cameroon Football Federation, Mr Eto'o Fils
Samuel, tendered his resignation to the members of the federal executive organ,
inviting them to do likewise in good faith.
At the end of discussions and
subsequent deliberations, the members of the Executive Committee decided to
maintain their current mandates and thus unanimously rejected the President's
resignation.
'Thereby renewing their confidence in him to continue with the same spirit of reconstruction and development of Cameroon football at all levels as envisaged in his plan adopted by the elective General Assembly of December 11, 2021.'
Cameroon are currently 46th in the world rankings, the
seventh highest-ranked African team.
After a hugely impressive career for the likes of Barcelona,
Inter Milan and Chelsea, the former striker -
who won the Champions League three times
and AFCON twice - took on the presidency
of Fecafoot in December 2021.
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