Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) President Samuel Eto’o has written a scathing letter to Radio France Internationale, RFI, for reporting that the latter are hiring the services of black magicians or ‘juju’ ritualists to boost the fortunes of the Indomitable Lions at the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The former captain of the Cameroon national team, who has been uncompromising in protecting the image of FECAFOOT since taking charge last year, challenged the French national broadcaster to provide evidence to the report he claims is calculated to damage the image of the country. Samuel queries the reports and has put RFI to the strictest proof on the report, citing that the allegations are defamatory to Cameroon’s national image and reputation.
The legendary footballer condemned the report by RFI as dubious following the report written by Fabien Essiane that said ‘Cameroon footballers are trooping to villages with the aim of destabilizing their opponents.’
In the letter dated October 7, 2022, Samuel Eto’o hit back at the allegations in the article in French, “World Cup 2022: when football and mysticism come together in Cameroon, which was published on October 6 on the RFI website.
The former Barcelona superstar promptly responded with an official response through a strongly-worded letter to the management of the French broadcaster insisting the report is defamatory with rather dubious sources.
Eto’o further discredited the media and the journalist in question by formally denying the content of the article and challenged all RFI journalists to prove the veracity of the report. The former Barcelona and Inter Milan talisman also called out RFI journalists for their lack of media ethics.
The RFI article went viral after reporting “that most Cameroonian footballers rush to remote villages in the depths of the equatorial forest, in search of and to meet traditional healers”.
“According to a certain custom, to achieve a good course during an international competition, you have to surround yourself with the best marabouts, traditional healers and private healers”.
According to Samuel Eto’o, his remarks are defamatory with rather dubious sources which further discredit the media and the journalist in question. In any case, the native of Newbell formally denies the content of this article and challenges all RFI journalists to prove the veracity of what they say.
Meanwhile, Cameroon has made more appearances at the FIFA World Cup than any other country from Africa and is grouped alongside Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland in Qatar 2022. The Indomitable Lions finished third in the African Cup of Nations 2021
Despite having made more appearances at the FIFA World Cup than any other country from Africa, Cameroon has not managed to qualify for the knockout phase since its quarter-final appearance in 1990 and head coach Rigobert Song will look to change that in Qatar