The president of the Cameroonian Football Federation, Samuel Eto’o, said today, Sunday, that “sport’s mission is to bring together, not to divide,” referring to the end of a sports dispute between his country and Algeria.
“Sport’s mission is to bring together, not to separate (..) I do not betray my friends (..) Algeria supported Cameroon in the 2022 African Cup of Nations, and it is time to return the favor,” Eto’o added, in statements to reporters after his arrival in Algiers to attend the activities of the African Nations Cup for locals.
Algeria will host the African Nations Cup for locals, “Al-Shaan”, between January 13 and February 4, with the participation of 17 teams.
And last March, a sports dispute broke out between Cameroon and Algeria, after the Cameroonian national team defeated its Algerian counterpart, with two goals to one, to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
At that time, the Algerian side accused the Gambian match referee, Bakary Gassama, of “bias” towards Cameroon, which led to the outbreak of a football crisis between the two sides.
Pages and accounts on social media in Algeria circulated a “photo” that was said to show Eto’o with referee Gassama, hinting at a deal between them.
In the picture, Eto’o appears sitting in what appears to be a restaurant next to Gassama, the referee of the match in which Cameroon snatched the qualification card for the 2022 Qatar World Cup from Algeria.
And the French Press Agency indicated that the publishers of this image wanted to hint that there was a deal between the two men that affected the results of the match that ended with Cameroon’s victory over Algeria 2-1, but the image is composite.
The Algerian Football Federation filed a complaint against Gassama due to “arbitration errors” during the Cameroon-Algeria match in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
The Algerian Federation asked the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) to open an investigation into what happened during the match, and to re-conduct it.
