By Walter Wilson Nana
The government and people of Cameroon are finding it difficult that this four-time African football champion and five-time World Cup participant may not be at the 2013 AFCON Rendezvous in South Africa.
After the recent dismal performances of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in the ongoing qualifiers for AFCON 2013 due in South Africa and the African qualifiers for World Cup 2014 slated for Brazil, all the necessary forces are been put in place to ensure that Cameroon bounces back into the international spotlight on a positive note.
Samuel Fils Eto'o
This is the background that prompted the government of Cameroon via the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education to kick-out the former coach of the Lions, Frenchman, Denis Lavagne and quickly recruit Jean Paul Akono as replacement. To further bring serenity into a Lions’ den that is said to be in cracks, especially with the very controversial eight-month suspension of the Captain, Samuel Fils Eto’o, the Prime Minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang, Tuesday, September 25 2012, received in audience, Samuel Fils Eto’o, who plies his football trade in Russian club, Anzhi Mackhachkala, Rigobert Song Bahanag, Team Manager, Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and Jean Paul Akono, newly appointed coach of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
Information trickling from that closed door meeting goes that the PM entreated the threesome to work for Cameroon’s qualification for AFCON 2013 in South Africa by winning the do or die game against little rated Cape Verde 3 – 0 come October 14 2012 in Yaoundé. In the first leg game of these last qualifiers for South Africa 2013, played in Praia, Saturday, September 8 2012, Cape Verde demolished Cameroon in a two nil victory. Since then, the nation – Cameroon is in trouble with herself. The soul of the government has been devastated and the citizens taken aback with the level at which Cameroon football has gone so low.
Some observers of Cameroon football have traced and attached the recent mishaps, faced by the team, on the manner in which the captain ban was taken from Song at the verge of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and given to Eto’o by the then coach, another Frenchman, Paul Marie Le Guen. Pundits say since then, it has not been a smooth relationship between Song and Eto’o, who are still in the team in one capacity or the other.
Indomitable Lions of Cameroon
Faced with these incessant problems, the government via the PM has stepped in to say let the opposing forces in the Lions’ den bury their parochial hatchet and work for the general good of the team, the people of Cameroon, the image of Cameroon football, which is currently tainted in the international scene and do their all to qualify for South Africa 2013.
Will this happen come Sunday, October 14 2012 in Yaoundé after 90 minutes of play between the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde? Let’s wait and see!!
