Leocadia Bongben
10 March 2008
Indomitable Lion's Coach, Otto Pfister, has condemned media attacks on his person and says he would wish to be left alone to do his job.
Pfister was bitter about reports recently published by some media organs indicating that he was recruited in Cameroon through a mafia setup.
Answering to the question of claims by some persons on a percentage of his recruitment fallouts, at the conference hall of the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education on March 7, he acknowledged that a said Fernand Taninche, Ajax Amsterdam Representative in Cameroon, actually proposed to be given 20 percent of the recruitment deal.
He maintained that when he presented the situation to the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Augustin Edjoa, he rejected it.It is against this background that Taninche has been threatening to take the matter to court, claiming that Pfister has to pay him FCFA 24m out of his FCFA 120m salary.
Taninche, who has been unable to get his share of the deal, decided to open to the media the unknown facts about the recruitment of the coach.Pfister, during the press conference, kept mute on the part played by his son, Mike Pfister. He maintained that his priority in Cameroon is football development and not "polemics and Tralala."
He asserted that he is not a marionette ad cannot be manipulated at will, and would stay in Cameroon until his services are no longer needed. While pleading to be left alone to do his job, he said he is liable to mistakes but will do his best for football.
He stated that by April 1, he would reside permanently in Cameroon. The training of coaches for the national championship, he mention, is one of his immediate projects besides the qualification of the Lions for the 2010 African Nations Cup and World Cup. He said he would inject young blood into the team as he has started with Alexander Song Bilong, Binya and many others he has spotted.
Quizzed on why he has no office at FECAFOOT, he said that is not a problem for him and that this does not interfere with his work.It would be recalled that Pfister was in November 2007, in an atmosphere of conflict, which still persists.
There had been an initial disagreement between the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education and FECAFOOT on the choice of Pfister.
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