Report: Match-fixing allegations part of “campaign” to undermine Samuel Eto’o’s reputation
Ex-footballer accuses Cameroon FA president Véron Mosengo-Omba of spreading negativity and “fake news” following January’s allegations of match-fixing involving former Barcelona star
Former Cameroonian footballer Samuel Eto’o has claimed the match-fixing allegations made against him by the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) general secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, are nothing but negative publicity.
CAF were asked last August to investigate Cameroon FA president Eto’o’s “improper conduct” and, at the end of January,sports journalism siteThe Athletic reported that he had been accused of helping certain teams gain promotion via “favourable refereeing decisions”.
The former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea striker was allegedly recorded in December 2021 promising Valentine Nkwain, the president of Cameroonian club Victoria United, that “there are things we can do” to get the team promoted to the top division. Victoria secured promotion in April the following year.
However, Eto’o’s lawyer Antoine Vey has since told The Guardian that the recordings do not prove match-fixing has taken place and is instead a tool to damage the former player’s reputation.
Vey said: “We have been able to identify some of the individuals who contributed to this situation, in particular the secretary-general.
“It’s him we are mentioning in our complaint. We have questions about who recorded that tape and for what purpose.
“Mr Eto’o doesn’t recognise taking part in a conversation in which he obviously talks about corruption. If you listen to the tape, he is trying to reassure a club president about some issues he is having; he says it will be dealt with but he doesn’t say it was by illegal means or anything like that.
“We don’t really see what the point of the tape is. It doesn’t have much to do with procedure and is just a part of a campaign to undermine Eto’o’s reputation.”
Vey claimed that CAF have ignored various attempts to arrange a hearing date for Eto’o, adding that a date was only provided after lawyers lodged a complaint with FIFA. This hearing is scheduled to take place tomorrow, 17 April.
However, the hearing falls outside of the regulations in the disciplinary code which states investigations should not “exceed six months”.
Vey continued: “We believe this investigation is based on nothing and it was only opened to create some negative publicity about Mr Eto’o.
“We don’t accept the way they [CAF] have been acting. If you take the chronology we don’t understand why it [the hearing] is happening now and it didn’t happen in August. We can also see that people are using this kind of procedural nonsense to create fake news about him,” he concluded.