Samuel Eto’o claims he is victim of Caf campaign before match-fixing hearing
Samuel Eto’o has accused the Confederation of African Football’s general secretary of several breaches of Fifa’s code of ethics during the investigation into allegations that he was involved in match-fixing.
The Guardian understands that Eto’o’s lawyers have lodged a complaint with world football’s governing body alleging that Véron Mosengo-Omba opened the investigation to create “negative publicity” about the former Barcelona striker, who has been president of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) since December 2021.
In August Caf opened an investigation after it said it had “received written statements from several Cameroonian football stakeholders to look into and investigate certain alleged improper conduct by Mr Samuel Eto’o”. Those are believed to have included allegations that he was involved in match-fixing after a recording of Eto’o speaking to someone alleged to be the president of a Cameroonian club, was made public.
Eto’o’s lawyers have insisted the recording provides no evidence of matchfixing and questioned its legality. They said their complaint to Fifa claimed that Mosengo-Omba was instrumental in initiating a media campaign against Eto’o and accused Mosengo-Omba of breaking various parts of Fifa’s ethics code including defamation, an “attack on physical and moral integrity” and abuse of power, as well as a violation rules of general conduct and the duty of confidentiality.
“We have been able to identify some of the individuals who contributed to this situation, in particular the secretary-general,” Eto’o’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, told the Guardian. “It’s him we are mentioning in our complaint. We have questions about who recorded