We have never been exceptionally good on the pitch and certainly not off the pitch. We were known to play a mean game of football though, scrappy, hard-nosed and with grim determination. We were able to chalk up worthy performances with the help of straight “ntong”, bad refereeing and bad opponents. In light of our current ranking down in the dumps with the newer soccer powerhouses like Burkina Faso looking down on us, time has come to face up to the truth about the state of the game back home.
We are bad. Our talent pool is laughable. Management is atrocious, with no sense of accountability nor purpose. Government does not seem to have a clear development path for the game. The sport governing body, the FECAFOOT, is a loathsome bunch on a permanent feeding frenzy, impervious to their core mandate, which has to do with protecting, nurturing and advancing the game of football in Cameroon.
So there. The situation is so rotten that it should not be that difficult to propose a cure. Actually, anything will do. And contrary to what they will tell you or make you believe, there are a lot of things that can be contemplated and implemented. Let’s count.
First, kill the beast. Slaughter the Lions Indomptables. Just kill this team! Two years max. Mr. Tonyè Mbock did it some 35 years ago, and we did not fare that bad, did we? What do we stand to lose, really, when you look at it? Most current players on the team are sub-standard and greying ungraciously. We sack them with thanks. We have Matip and Song who, I trust, are going to be great in a few years. If the situation and the environment are safer and more performance-friendly, these two youngsters will play with us and help us rebuild some glory.
Second, dismantle the FECAFOOT. Burn down the ugly headquarters in Tsinga, send them all packing, give Mr. Iya and his cronies their marching orders. FIFA, they will tell you, will come down with fury upon us. Baloney! The game of FIFA is politics. We hold our own position, they hold theirs, then we talk. That’s politics. They can be reasoned because they know that football in Cameroon, as in many other Third World countries, is supported and managed by the government. Because the practice of football here is within the purview of public policy. But again, with our national team off the pitch, who cares about FIFA really? We will reengage with them after our house is cleaned and back to spick and span condition.
Third and final, organize football national. This is where it all begins, this is really where it matters, but this is where we are notoriously underachieving. No worthwhile football ground; no reliable national championship; no youth leagues; no training nor coaching. But they will tell you that it does not matter since we have Eto’o, Song, Kameni, Webo and many other playing in major leagues abroad. That is ridiculous, of course, because it is easy to see that no nation has made it particularly big on the world scene without a well-organized, abeit small, national championship. A few tin idols in Europe have not helped the game back home. That is a fact.
Our current ranking, I hate to say this, becomes us well. That is where we belong. The question now is whether we want to be in that same situation for the next two to five years. I suggest that they way out of the current doldrums would entail somehow revamping the Lions and certainly dismantling the FECAFOOT.
Leonidas Ndogkoti
