For a very long time Cameroon were the standout out team in Africa. The Indomitable Lions lived up to their moniker by winning four African Cup of Nations titles between 1984 and 2002.
And those old enough to remember the 1990 World Cup will recall the all-scoring, all dancing Roger Milla leading Cameroon to a first ever quarter-final for an African nation. The central Africans even ran England close in that quarter-final before succumbing to two late Gary Linker penalties in a 3 – 2 defeat.
It was the high point of Cameroon’s seven excursions to the global showpiece – an African record.
They also won Olympic gold in 2000.
But if anyone’s cast a furtive glance at the 2013 African Cup of Nations, they will notice that Cameroon are conspicuous by their absence.
That’s not the worst of it. The Indomitable Lions’ roar was also silent in the 2012 edition.
This is despite the fact that they can still call upon the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Alex Song and co.
Actually that is only half right and tells you something about the needless problems facing Cameroon.
Dispute
Eto’o, a three-time Champions League winner and one of the best strikers of his generation, was booted out of the national team after a dispute with the countries football federation.
The 31-year-old had led a squad strike against the federation over unpaid bonuses – an issue which crops up all too often where African national teams are concerned. It ultimately led to the cancellation of a lucrative friendly match with Algeria in November 2011.
You would be forgiven for thinking that Eto’o was being greedy as he is the highest paid footballer in the world, on an eye-watering €35.7 million a year, or €360,000 per week. But his motivation appears to be the fact that a small proportion of his team-mates who play in Europe’s lower divisions or Cameroon’s domestic league, earn less than he does in an hour and need their bonuses.
The Anzhi Makhachakla striker was initially banned for 15 games which meant he would miss the entire African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign and qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup.
However Paul Biya, the country’s president of 31 years, intervened to ask for a lighter sentence.
The top brass at the Federation were never going to risk offending the country’s undisputed leader and in the end the ban was reduced to eight games.
That decision meant that Eto’o would miss four competitive matches. But it cost Cameroon. They managed to reach the playoffs for the African Cup of Nations but were shocked 2 – 0 by tiny Cape Verde in September, the final game of Eto’o’s suspension.
But his return in the second leg was not enough to turn the tie around as a narrow 2 – 1 home win saw the Indomitable Lions fail to qualify for a second successive tournament.
The Lions seem to have done a bit of a Mufasa from the Lion King, falling from their lofty perch and getting lost amid a stampede of emerging footballing nations.
Discipline
Cameroon were fortunate to have two overlapping generations of talented footballers starting with the team of the mid 80s and early 90s led by Milla, Francois Oman-Biyik and Thomas N’Kono and their successors embodied by Patrick M’Boma, former Liverpool man Rigobert Song, Chelsea old boy Geremi Njitap and of course Eto’o.
But other countries have not only caught up but in many cases overtaken the Indomitable Lions. Ivory Coast and Ghana moved ahead of Cameroon six or seven years ago, while a whole clutch of countries including Gabon, Mali and Zambia have achieved parity.
There is still talent to call upon. At 31,Eto’o still has a couple of years at the top, Barcelona’s Alex Song has bags of Champions League experience, Marseille defender Nicolas N’Koulou is highly rated and Tottenham left back Benoit Assou-Ekotto is a regular at Premier League level.
Discipline at both squad and federation level is the only thing that can revitalise the beleaguered team and it was recently cited by former Cameroon coach Winfried Schafer as the key ingredient for success in the 2002 African Nations Cup and qualification for that year’s World Cup.
The 2014 World Cup qualification campaign will tell us a lot about whether the Indomitable Lions’ can get their house in order and roar back to life. But if they fail to make it to Brazil, then it is a sure sign that Africa’s former powerhouse has been reduced to a whimper.
