FC Bamenda to fight FECAFOOT for promotion to Elite II

Northwest flag bearer in the last ascension tournament into the National Elite II has described as unjust the decision by FECAFOOT to promote AS Belabo instead of FC Bamenda that earned the same number of points in the tournament.

Dinga Joseph Fombutu President of FC Bamenda made the statement at a press conference he held at the FC Bamenda Academy at Ngwatkan on December 12, 2014, also putting the blame at the steps of former NW FECAFOOT scribe and current regional league president Kaba Christopher Atanga for the poor performance of Northwest teams in such competition due to greed and personal conflict.

He explained that F.C Bamenda ended the completion on 6 points after victories over A.S Belabo (1-0) and Koza FC (1-0) and a 1-3 defeat against Stade Renard of Melong . Stade Renard and AS Belabo also ended the tournament on 6 points each after victories over Koza and each other.

According to Dinga Jospeh and the Technical Director of FC Bamenda Jean Baptiste Kiam, they were not given any official document of the rules of the game by FECAFOOT and only followed their participation over the media, but did all what was necessary to attend all their matches even if they were spread across a a vast geographical area which never represented the mid point between the teams as was expected.

They further explained that though not given the rules of the game, the rule in previous tournament was that incase of the same of points, the teams will be decided in a play off match, but when the learned ove the radio that AS Belabo has been promoted to Elite II, they confronted FECAFOOT and was told that they qualified by merit of their head to head record against the other teams.

“If we go by the head to head record, AS Belabo can not qualify ahead of us because we beat them 1-0, and how come they are the ones who qualify ahead of us?” he wondered aloud. “We’ll not have complained if it was Stade Renard that qualifies, but AS Belabo would because they beat them too” he continued. The only logical outcome will have been a playoff between the three teams he said.

He also blamed Kaba Christopher for working against the interest of FC Bamenda and Football in the region. He cited the case of other regional league presidents, who accompanied their teams throughout the tournament to support them, but Kaba was never there and when they meet him in Yaounde, Kaba reportedly told them that FC Bamenda is not in his good books.

They also accused him of withholding documents on the rules of the competition sent through him to FC Bamenda. The president of FC Bamenda went further to accused kaba Christopher of fraudulently winning his way to office through what he called “rigged election”.

FC Bamenda has vowed to fight the battle through all local legal channels to the International level once they get the official decision from FECAFOOT, and in the case where injustice continue, he who table a bill of 250 million to FECAFOOT to cover the cost of running his club in the championship.