This Day (Lagos)

Cameroon: Eto'o - Country Backs Down

By Tunde Sulaiman, 9 January 2008

Lagos — Barcelona has been given written permission from Cameroon to delay the departure of Samuel Eto'o for the Africa Cup of Nations.

The administrative director of the Cameroon football federation, Albert Njuigol, told BBC Sport that coach Otto Pfister has agreed that Barcelona can keep Eto'o until the weekend.

Cameroon had been insisting that Eto'o should join them on Monday. But Barcelona wanted him to play two more games in Spain.

Barcelona coach coach Frank Rijkaard said yesterday that they have the go-ahead to keep the player.

"We have written permission from the Cameroon Federation," Rijkaard told a news conference.

"The important thing for Samuel is to play and the federation and their coach have seen that that is best for them and for us."

Barcelona has included Eto'o in their squad to face Sevilla in the first leg of their King's Cup last-16 tie today.

They also expect to field him at home to Real Murcia in the Primera Liga on Saturday before he joins Cameroon.

Cameroon is holding a training camp in Burkina Faso.

The rules of football's world governing body FIFA state that clubs must release players two weeks before the start of the tournament.

But a player's club and national team can come to an agreement to delay the release of the player.

Tagged: Cameroon, Central Africa, Soccer, Sport, West Africa

Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Comments 1 to 1 of 1 Post a comment

  • embaku
    Jan 9 2008, 09:55
    Report Abuse

    First of all I want to point out that I am a regular reader of "allAfrica.com" My comments concern the article titled "Eto'o - Country Backs Down" posted January 9th 2008

    This article originally came up on the BBC/Sport web site with Cameroon as sub title. But if you look at the title of this article on the 'allAfrica.com web site, it starts with the phrase "Cameroon/Nigeria". Somehow the word ‘Nigeria’ has been added to it.

    My question is what does Nigeria have to do with the negotiation between Cameroon and Barcelona FC of Spain for the release of a Cameroonian player, Eto'o, so he can play in the African nation’s cup to be held this month in Ghana?

    I have seen this gesture on this web site many times and I am wondering if the author(s)/ editor(s) responsible really have stoop so low just to advertise Nigeria?