Professional footballers' salaries inadequate

While footballers elsewhere are known to earn colossal sums of money, in Cameroon they are given chicken feed as salaries and even then it is not usually regular in coming.

This has created a situation where most players in the domestic league stay in the country just for as long as it is necessary for them to find a richer club abroad. In order to curb the talent drain and enable footballer in Cameroon lead a decent life from their trade, football authorities initiated a project install a professional football league in Cameroon. Among the criteria towards instituting a professional football league in Cameroon, was the need for players to have not only a permanent but also a decent salary.

Within the framework of tripartite talks bringing together Fifa, Fecafoot and club presidents in Cameroon, a salary scale was established for footballers in Cameroon with a minimum wage of FCFA 100.000 for players and 150.000 for coaches. Owing to the inability of the clubs to meet with the new demands of professionalism, the government decided to chip in some financial support by providing subventions to first and second division clubs during the nascent years of the Professional League so as to cushion the effect of the financial incidence.

Though the subventions was geared at paying the players’ salaries essentially, most club presidents after receiving the money, did not pass it on to the players evoking the argument that the players had different contracts with them and claim to divert part of the money to other budgetary heads.

There is complete opacity as to what players earn and despite government subventions, players from clubs like Tonnerre Yaounde, Scorpion of Bé staged a strike action because of unpaid salaries. Most of them are afraid to speak out on the issue for fear of a back lash from the club presidents.

Following incessant complaints of unpaid salaries from Cameroonian footballers, the footballer’s trade union better known by its French acronym, SYNAFOC, took up the battle and addressed a letter to club presidents urging them to respect their contracts with players and pay their salaries. However SYNAFOC field of action or scope of influence is limited given that they don’t have any cohesive powers and the trade Union is not represented at the general assembly of Fecafoot which is the highest decision making instance of football in the country.

The President of the Professional League, General Pierre Semengue attempted to pry into how the money was being spent by club presidents but was accused of interfering in the internal affairs of clubs and he had to back off. With no control from government, Fecafoot of the Professional League, players have been left on their own, unable to stake their claim against their club presidents. The exodus of talents to seek for greener pastures abroad continues with the tacit complicity of clubs presidents who make fortunes from such transfers.

No highest goal scorer of the season has stayed in the country the following season to defend his title. Attracted by ostentatious lifestyle of their counterparts especially in Europe, footballers in Cameroon are prepared to use even unorthodox means to leave the country thereby leaving the national championship to half-baked talents who do not make for interesting watching. However, there is a glimmer of hope in the pipeline with CAF having adopted the Fifa system of club licensing.

This measure is expected to bring more transparency and accountability in management as well as boost the financial resources of football clubs. Professionalism will therefore become a must or the club cease to exist after 206 when the measure is supposed to be implemented across the continent.