{"id":170153,"date":"2025-12-02T00:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/170153\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T00:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:59:07","slug":"afcon-2025-andre-onana-left-out-of-cameroon-squad-as-samuel-etoo-sacks-coach-for-subterfuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/170153\/","title":{"rendered":"Afcon 2025: Andre Onana left out of Cameroon squad as Samuel Eto&#8217;o sacks coach for &#8216;subterfuge&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Since Brys&#8217; arrival, Fecafoot and Cameroon&#8217;s ministry of sport have been at loggerheads over the legality and legitimacy of the 63-year-old&#8217;s contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But he is not the first manager dismissed by Eto&#8217;o&#8217;s regime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having first been<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/59622746\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> elected to Fecafoot&#8217;s top job in December 2021<\/a>, the former Barcelona and Inter Milan forward soon oversaw the dismissal of Portuguese boss Toni Concecaio, who had guided Cameroon to a third-place finish on home soil at the 2021 Afcon, despite opposition from the ministry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Another Cameroon legend, Rigobert Song, was immediately appointed as Conceicao&#8217;s replacement &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/60565333\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">under the instructions of the country&#8217;s President Paul Biya<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Strongly rumoured to also be Eto&#8217;o&#8217;s choice, Song led his nation at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar &#8211; which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/africa\/63795904\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Onana departed early<\/a> after being suspended by Fecafoot &#8211; but a poor showing at the last Afcon in Ivory Coast ended the former West Ham and Liverpool defender&#8217;s time in charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The sports ministry&#8217;s choice of Brys as Song&#8217;s replacement was met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/africa\/68722190\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;great astonishment&#8221;<\/a> at Fecafoot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Less than two months later, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/crgg89g9enzo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Belgian was removed<\/a> following a heated row with Eto&#8217;o &#8211; only to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/cj559r20nmdo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reinstated two days later<\/a> as the federation president apologised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With Brys&#8217; recent failure to qualify his team for next year&#8217;s World Cup, having lost to Dr Congo in the African play-offs, it now looks as if Eto&#8217;o has finally got his way. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, it remains to be seen whether the ministry, which pays the head coach&#8217;s salary, will acquiesce to Fecafoot and Eto&#8217;o on this occasion. The BBC has been told that, for now, it has nothing to say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s difficult to see how a new manager will be able to put together a playing system, create an avenue where the players can express themselves fluently on the pitch and play as a unit,&#8221; Cameroonian analyst Njie Enow told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Whatever the outcome on the pitch, Fecafoot&#8217;s allegations of misconduct and the dismissal of Brys just weeks before a major tournament is merely the latest in a series of dramatic events under Eto&#8217;o&#8217;s stewardship, which has been marked by a range of scandals and opposition from local football stakeholders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Brys&#8217; arrival, Fecafoot and Cameroon&#8217;s ministry of sport have been at loggerheads over the legality and legitimacy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-170153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}