Eto´o receives 15-match ban

Samuel Eto’o has been slapped with a 15-match suspension for instigating a strike within the Cameroon national team last month.

The player strike was held after officials delayed the payment of match bonuses from the LG Cup held in Morocco.

The action subsequently forced a scheduled international friendly against Algeria on November 15 to be cancelled.

Cameroon vice-captain Enoh Eyong, accused of conspiring with Eto’o, was given a two-match ban, while Tottenham’s Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who has been spurning call-ups, was fined $2000.

Eto’o told reporters after the hearing that the reasons for the strike action were deeper and broader than the match bonus affair, assuring that Cameroonians would soon hear ‘the whole truth’ of the matter.

Newly appointed coach Denis Lavagne and his assistant Martin Ndtoungou Mpile, as well as the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) vice-president Francis Mveng were also heard by the committee.

The Algeria football federation, which is demanding 770,000 euros in damages incurred from the scrapped meeting, saluted the exemplary decision of the Fecafoot, but did not say whether it would abandon its case against the Cameroonian body.