Lions exit from AFCON: What went wrong?

Like in 1996, the Lions were knocked out of the Nations Cup during the first round though this time with two draws and a loss. The Lions returned home like dogs with their tails between their legs and many have been yearning to know what went wrong.

Like in Brazil in 2014, the Lions went to the competition with players who were recovering from injury, like the captain, Stephane Mbia, Nicolas Nkoulou and Oyongo Bitolo.

Bitolo got injured during an inter-quarter game and the Coach helped to hide the injury when he declared at the press conference that the player of Red Bulls in the US was fine.

Playing only for about 17 minutes Enow Eyong who has not been active in club left the field injured leaving a vacuum in the midfield coupled with the absence of Mbia in the central defense.

Also, there has been little collaboration between the coach Volker Finke and his Cameroonian assistants, Djonkep Bonavanture and Alexandre Belinga.

This was noticed during the last match of the Nations Cup where Djonkep and Belinga proposed a list to head-coach which included Njie and the latter ignored their propositions. Finke had from the start adopted a style of work with Ibrahim Tanko sidelining the assistants.

Claude Bathelomie Mbarga, a coach in Belgium like many others have identified the tactical errors that forced the Lions to quit the competition and criticized Finke for his mismanagement of human resources.

In his analysis, about 50 percent of Cameroonian players including Enoh Eyong are not first choices in their clubs while there are players in top form in other clubs who have not been included.

There are equally speculations that Finke is into a kind of deal with players from a particular manager called Maxim Nana.

Many hold that there is no explanation as to why the team should have nine players from the same manager though Finke refutes claims about a deal saying he has enough money to get involved in such transactions.

It is almost a similar issue with the featuring of Franck Etoundi whom many do not seem to see playing better than Leonie Kweukeu and Njie Clinton and who contributed little or nothing during the Nations Cup. There are allegations that the captain has a bearing on the coach to feature his brother.

With managerial dysfunctions as seen prior to the departure of the players where qualifications bonuses agreed on were not ready in time, the result can only be an early exit from the Nations Cup.

One thing is obvious that the Ministry of Sports and the Cameroon Football Federation is towing the same line of thinking with Cameroonians who believe Finke’s contract should not be renewed.

Fibke’s two-year contract is due to expire in March and given that there is no competition during this period except for friendlies, the authorities would take their time and allow the contract to expire.

An indication that the Coach is now a persona non grata is the fact that at the Yaounde Nsimalen Airport, supporters, hailed some players like Fabrice Ondoua and Njie Clinton and heaped the blame for exit from the Nations Cup on Finke.

A supporter went too far to even hit the Coach on the head and nobody intervened, the Lions security was quiet and so was police at the airport. Only Ibrahim Tanko, Finke’s assistant attempted to help his boss who was courageous enough to come back to Cameroon after the poor performance in Equatorial Guinea.

There are indications that the federation will hold a press conference in the days ahead to provide their balance sheet of the Lions participation in the Nations Cup.