RIO DE JANEIRO — Cameroon’s soccer federation announced late Monday that it would investigate its World Cup team for match fixing, paying particular attention to a heavy defeat by Croatia in the opening round.
Cameroon was among the worst teams at the World Cup, losing its three first-round matches by a combined score of 9-1 and fighting about its bonuses with its federation. It was eliminated before its final group game, a matchup against Brazil that FIFA’s top security official warned had drawn the association’s attention.“Recent allegations of fraud around Cameroon 2014 FIFA World Cup three preliminary games, especially Cameroon vs. Croatia, as well of the ‘existence of seven bad apples [in our national team]’ do not reflect the values and principles promoted by our administration,” Cameroon’s federation, known as Fecafoot, said in a statement posted on its website.
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“Though not yet contacted by FIFA in regards to this affair,” the statement continued, “our administration has already instructed its ethics committee to further investigate these accusations.”
Cameroon’s World Cup was by most measures a dismal experience. The team arrived in Brazil a day late after refusing to travel until it was paid its bonuses, in cash. It lost its opener to Mexico, 1-0, in a driving rainstorm, then was pummeled by Croatia, 4-0, in a game in which midfielder Alex Song was given a red card in the first half and one of his teammates attempted to head-butt another in the second.
The result became more suspicious after the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported that in a Facebook chat hours before the Cameroon-Croatia game, the notorious match fixer Wilson Raj Perumal had accurately predicted both the 4-0 score line and the first-half ejection of a Cameroon player. On Tuesday, Perumal, through his publisher, denied that he had predicted the score and the ejection.
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“Some players behaved very badly,” Cameroon’s German coach, Volker Finke, said of his team’s effort. He added: “After such a result, we have to admit that it is a disgrace.”
That loss eliminated Cameroon even before its final group game, against Brazil. Since Brazil still needed a positive result from the match to win the group, and ease its path in the knockout stages, FIFA officials said they were closely monitoring the game in overseas gambling markets for suspicious betting patterns. Brazil won, 4-1.
FIFA, citing policy, refused to say whether it would conduct its own probe, saying it did not want to prejudice any possible investigation. “The integrity of the game is a top priority for FIFA, and as such we take any allegations of match manipulation very seriously,” a FIFA spokeswoman, Delia Fischer, said.
The involvement of Cameroon makes the issue a delicate one. The governing body for the sport in Africa, the Confederation of African Football, has been run since 1988 by a Cameroonian, Issa Hayatou. Hayatou is a powerful ally of FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, who is expected to run for re-election to another term next year.
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