After gov’t’s interference in fecafoot:

Dicey future for Cameroon football?
Bidoung Mkpatt’s decision to validate Tombi’s election, sports critics say, is an act of interference in Fecafoot affairs and is very likely to invite sanctions from Fifa, if ever Abdouraman and Bell Joseph decide to take their case beyond the country’s borders  
By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde
The cancellation by Sport and Physical Education minister Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt of the decision of the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration (CCA) annulling the recent election at the National Football Federation (FECAFOOT), has raised dust that may not settle anytime too soon. Observers see Bidoung Mkpatt’s action as the beginning of an intricate conundrum that would eventually lead to his sacking from that seat which has proved to be (one of) the hottest in President Paul Biya’s 33-year reign.
    The minister’s act came on Wednesday, 18 November 2015 after a consultation meeting he held with some top members of the contested FECAFOOT bureau; viz, Tombi à Roko (president), Faustin Mbida (his director of cabinet) and Patrick Ebode Tsanga (head of the legal department); as well as Abolo Biwole, a representative of the president of the National Olympics and Sport Committee of Cameroon (NOSCC) Kalkaba Malboum.
    In the final communiqué signed by Bidoung Mkpatt, a copy of which The Median stumbled on, it is stated that law n°2011/018 of 15 July 2011 on the organization and promotion of physical and sporting activities in the country requires the CCA, which is an arm of the NOSCC, to make pronouncements on litigations opposing licensed stakeholders and sporting federations only after the means of solving them within each given federation has been exhausted. The minister’s statement added that by deciding on an issue of republican reality therefore, the CCA has acted beyond the area of its competence. For this reason, the minster considers the recently held divisional and regional elections at FECAFOOT valid.
    Arguing that the texts regulating the affairs of the NOSCC are clear on the competence of the CCA to handle such a matter, critics have blamed the Sport and Physical Education minister for being too quick to make a contrary decision.
    “This is a clear case of overzealousness and even superciliousness,” Ndi Raymond Fru, a sport analyst and FIFA-licensed player agent told The Median on Sunday. “Let him not think that he is working in the interest of Cameroon football or that he will please President Biya with this lame action. The President is very particular about our football; he feels most disappointed when our football is declining rather than progressing. If Bidoung Mkpatt does not know, that is why Iya Mohamed is in prison today. It is therefore in his best interest to look at the past before acting. Otherwise he stands the risk of being booted out of his position in the very next cabinet reshuffle especially if FIFA ever suspends Cameroon.”
    Pundits read a lot of meaning in Ndi Raymond’s argument. Fifa sanctions have always put Cameroon into a tight situation sometimes requiring president Biya himself to go lobbying for the suspension to be lifted.
    Besides, this is not the best time for Cameroon to be suspended giving that we are preparing to host the Women’s AFCON in 2016 and the Men’s AFCON in 2019.
    That is why it is feared that Minister Bidoung’s decision may not spare him President Biya’s wrath if ever the worst happens to Cameroon. For one thing, the sport ministry has known one of the highest numbers of ministers for the 33 years that Biya has ruled Cameroon.