The Cameroon football association is taking tough action against its own players. They apparently tried to forge their identities.
The Football Association of Cameroon has banned 62 national players, the media reported, citing a list published by the Cameroon association (FECAFOOT) at the weekend. The reason: The players are said to have provided false information about their age. The supposedly 17-year-old national player Wilfried Nathan Douala is also said to be on the list.
Douala was the youngest player from the team that took part in the African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in January, but was eliminated by Nigeria in the round of 16. Apparently Douala, who plays for first division club Victoria United in Cameroon, is said to have lied about his age. How old he actually is has not yet been revealed.
Stay in the focus of talent scouts
In addition to Douala, the association also banned 61 other players. How long the bans will apply has not yet been made public. Age fraud is common in African football. It is the third year in a row that the Cameroonian association has banned players for this reason. In 2022, 44 footballers and 21 in 2023 were suspended for providing false information about their age.
The former world-class footballer and current Cameroonian association president Samuel Eto’o is taking action against the structural problem and taking action against his own players. As a rule, players pretend to be younger than they actually are in order to become the focus of European talent scouts. They are particularly interested in young footballers; anyone over the age of 13 usually has no chance of making it into a European league.