EDITORIAL

Finke’s CAN qualifiers list:New wine rebranded in old bottles

Every patriotic Cameroonian was ashamed and flabbergasted with the performance of the nation’s soccer team at the World Cup tournament in Brazil. So shocking were the events before, during and after the competition that the head of state, President Paul Biya did not hesitate to instruct Prime Minister Philemon Yang to institute a commission to investigate the causes of the disgraceful performances in the field and off the pitch.

To illustrate the urgency and soothe the rage that was flaring in many Cameroonians, the president gave the prime minister just one month to do the job and submit a report.

Several weeks since the report has been lying on the presidential desk, nothing has so far been heard about the report, except for a leakage of parts of the recommendation. Would the report whose commission cost the tax payers a whooping amount be of any use after the FECAFOOT elections; expected in a matter of weeks?  Wasn’t the report intended to know the fraudulent and obstinate officials involved in the show of shame in Brazil before the FECAFOOT elections take place?  Or was the commission just one of those subterfuges intended to cover up sacred cows of the system especially as there is a local saying that “the best way to cover such atrocities in Cameroon is to set up a commission of enquiry whose findings are never made public”.

Such cynics may not be entirely wrong. When the finance department of the national assembly went ablaze, a commission was put in place and till date the public has never been told what the commission found out. It was the same scenario when explosives rocked the military headquarters. The number of commissions publicly set up whose outcomes have remained secret are legion.

As for that concerning the military headquarters’ commission, excuses may be given that it involved classified issues, but that of football ought not to be swathed in confidentiality. It should be public knowledge just as the game itself is never played in hiding.

To keep the Yang report secret will only amount to disservice to the game Cameroonians so much love, which remains the only event that genuinely unites Cameroonians. In the nineties, it gave the nation an envious international image its combined diplomatic missions could not. And why does the Yaounde authorities not build on that by exposing those dragging that reputation into reeking sludge?

At least, the Yang’s report would have named names to be sanctioned. The scandals did not happen in sacred, they were overt. Cameroonians will decide individually where to attribute blames and would even extend their indictment to the presidency if the report is not released before expected FECAFOOT election.  Publishing the result before that crucial election will guide members of the electoral college to give a sanction vote to those implicated and might want to run for office into the management of Cameroon football.

Whether the report is released or allowed to rot at the presidency may not make much of a difference to identify where to point accusing fingers. The captain of the team, Samuel Eto’o Fils should naturally take much of the reprimand being the leader. He failed to set an emulative example of patriotism and nationalism by refusing to play in the farewell match. It is alleged that he made-up an injury in order to not to be indicted for rejecting the national flag which they were going to defend in Brazil.

He was on the reserve bench and could have instructed his colleagues to take the flag. What stopped him from springing up as leader to collect the national colours when he observed that his team mates were streaming into the dressing room as the prime minister went to hand the flag to them?  Coach Finke, a German, who received the flag, has publicly found Eto’o so blameworthy to the point of being quoted as saying “only a fool will select” the captain again.

A vox pop The Guardian Post conducted among Cameroonian football fans also attributed some of the inequities of Brazil 2014 to Finke. He did not as much as accompany the team back to Yaounde after the Lions were knocked out. He should have learnt not to throw stones from a glass house where he lives.

Whether the Yang report remains classified or not, articulate Cameroonian football fans will continue to grieve from the shame Alexander Song inflicted on the national image by punching a player off the ball. The injury brought by Assou Ekoto for giving a fellow team mate a head butt remains an open wound on the national psyche. The refusal to board a plane at the last minute for Brazil because of bonuses adds salt to the injury and of course coming the last among the 32 teams that took part in the tournament was just too much for Cameroonians to swallow.

Joseph Owona who as chairman of the normalisation committee did not complete his assignment as scheduled so as to extend it to the World Cup obviously takes some of the knocks. He has been given all the time he needed, and more to “normslise” the management of Cameroon football. The Guardian Post wishes him good luck and the outcome of his assignment will be judged by the comportment of roaring Lions who should prove that they are indomitable as qualifiers for the 2015 African Nations Cup tournament begin on September 6, 2014.

But we doubt its indomitability if we continue to rebrand new wine in old bottles just made new by shining labels. All that just because Cameroonians were not told what is in Yang’s report and the sanction the president meted out to defaulters. We think the president can still release the report and sanction culprits of the Brazil scandals before the FECAFOOT elections take place in the coming weeks.