Sports / Soccer
Cameroon bans Eto'o for 15 matches
17 Dec 2011 at 22:57hrs | Views
Samuel Eto'o
Reigning African Footballer of the Year Samuel Eto'o was banned for 15 matches by Cameroon on Friday after a players' strike forced a friendly in Algeria last month to be cancelled.
The harsh punishment was decided by the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) disciplinary committee.
Eto'o has been voted African Footballer of the Year a record four times and has represented the Cameroonian "Indomitable Lions" for more than a decade.
But the striker has frequently disagreed with officials and took the brunt of the blame when a strike prevented the friendly match going ahead.
Eto'o and his team-mates claimed they were not paid money and the fixture had to be canned with Algeria, claiming one million dollars compensation for lost revenue.
The star has two weeks to appeal the ban which would rule him out of a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tie in Guinea Bissau on February 29 next year and 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya in June.
The harsh punishment was decided by the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) disciplinary committee.
Eto'o has been voted African Footballer of the Year a record four times and has represented the Cameroonian "Indomitable Lions" for more than a decade.
But the striker has frequently disagreed with officials and took the brunt of the blame when a strike prevented the friendly match going ahead.
Eto'o and his team-mates claimed they were not paid money and the fixture had to be canned with Algeria, claiming one million dollars compensation for lost revenue.
The star has two weeks to appeal the ban which would rule him out of a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tie in Guinea Bissau on February 29 next year and 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya in June.
Source - Xinhua
