The control of pro League funds at the center of the discord between the president of FECAFOOT and the general, president of the Professional Football League of Cameroon. For this battle for control of money, the prolongations will be disputed in court and probably until the Palace of Unity.
The ball does not go round between the president of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot), Seidou Mbombo Njoya and Pierre Semengue, president (fallen) of the Professional Football League of Cameroon (Lfpc).
We must go further to understand the stakes of nla battle that engage these two leaders of the Cameroonian football. In 1989, after a single season of the National Football League (Linafoot), chaired by Pierre Semengue, the Minister in charge of Sports of the time and father of the current president of the Fecafoot, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, sultan of the Bamouns ;decided to dissolve this institution. A decision that will go bad digest Semengue.
In 2011, at the creation of the Professional Football League of Cameroon, at the instigation of the government, it is suggested to Michel Zoah, then Minister of Sports and Physical Education to appoint the general of armies in the second section, Pierre Semengue at the head of this institution.
In the shadows, the very influential Issa Hayatou - then president of the Caf - who owes almost all his nominations to the Fecafoot to Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, will suggest to Iya Mohammed (former president of the Fecafoot) that Seidou Mbombo Njoya be designated as vice-president of the Lfpc.
A proposition that General Pierre Semengue accepts before rejecting it a few months later, accusing Seidou Mbombo Njoya of "incompetence". "We can not have been a bad manager of the National Lottery and become a good football leader. When we are bad managers, we are everywhere, "he argued.
TV rights of Being Sport
Filigree, this battle comes at the moment when the League of professional football of Cameroon is, thanks to the interpersonal of Samuel Eto'o, about to sign a right-TV agreement with the Qatari chain Being Sport , for the broadcast of the matches of Ligue 1 of Cameroon.
This is a boon for Cameroonian clubs that survive, largely, thanks to the infusion of the state. Clearly, it is for the control of this manna that the Lfpc should generate that these two leaders are crumpled.
Fecafoot wants to control this manna so much that it proposed to Pierre Semengue to become its honorary president, with the key to a monthly salary of 3 million Fcfa.Feeling the trap, the former chairman of Tkc refused the offer he considers to be an attempt at corruption.
The grudge being tenacious in some people, this Tuesday, September 03, 2019, at the end of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the FECAFOOT, it was decided to create a temporary Technical Management Committee to replace the Professional Football League until in 2021.
The first vice-president of FECAFOOT, Aboubakar Alim Konate was placed at the head of this Committee. Joshua Osih and Abbo Mohamadou are members. A team that will be completed by a vice-president and two other members who will be appointed by the president of the Fecafoot, Seidou Mbombo Njoya.
Trafficking in influence
At the end of the meeting of the Executive Committee of FECAFOOT, held Tuesday, September 3, Seidou Mbombo Njoya, 57, explained to the media the reasons that forced the establishment of this Technical Transitional Committee.
For the president, the Fecafoot, it is a question of putting an end to the malfunctions and the tensions which take place within this instance. "The crisis of deep trust between the professional football league and the majority of professional clubs, the name recurring respect of the statutory provisions of the league related to the malfunction of organs like the failure of the General Assemblies, the nonexistent budgetary and financial procedures, the lack of an organizational chart and a coherent human resources management plan, the questioning of the supervision of the federation and its prerogatives, the opacity in the management of the subsidies allocated by the State and the Fécafoot ", are among others the grievances decried by the boss of the Cameroonian football.
However, this plot to dismiss Semengue of LfPC of Cameroon has been hatched since. Before the last statutes of the Fecafoot, written by the clan Dieudonné Happi, the last president of the Committee of normalization, the president of Lfpc was de facto, vice-president of the Fecafoot. Worse, last August 26, an amendment considered discriminatory Bureau of the Executive Committee of the FECAFOOT came to set 75 years the age limit to be president of the LFPC.
Make a complaint to the Fecafoot
Before dissolving the Lfpc, did the administrators of the Fecafoot cogitate this thought of Jean Cocteau: "A brave general never surrenders, even to the obvious". As to apply this saying, this same September 03, 2019 at the headquarters of the LFPC, Pierre Semengue, 85, at an impromptu press conference, indicated that he will file a complaint to the FECAFOOT for breach of his reputation: " All that has been done today at FECAFOOT does not concern me, it is illegal. I remain the elected and legitimate president of the LFPC until July 2020. I will defend my mandate at any cost. "
Carried at the head of the Lfpc in 2011, Semengue believes that he has not given enough to this instance where he landed not through the ballot box but by the discretionary power of the head of state he calls lovingly his boss and "friend".
It is by force of influence peddling on the side of the Palace of Unity that this battle will be disputed. Thus, the showdown Fecafoot / Lfpc will play overtime while the clubs and the Cameroonian sports public will always be waiting for a real professionalism of our football.
Source: journalducameroun.com