Indomitable Lionesses protest after Afrobasket

Cameroonian sports have once again been linked to ‘fait divers’ as the Indomitable Lionesses protested to get an increase in their premiums, after the just ended Afrobasket tournament.

The players decided to stay at the Mont Febe Hotel until their demands were met. They refused to take the 2 million FCFA (each) offered them by the Commissioner from the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education.

The Women’s Basketball team demanded a pay similar to their colleagues who play volleyball (11 million) and football (21 million). The captain, Amina Njonkou, and her teammates said that they should be paid at least 15 million as a reward for their 'historic' performance in the latest edition of the Afrobasket.

Reached by telephone on Sunday night, the Secretary General of the Cameroon Basketball Federation (Fecabasket), Camille Njoh Ekiti, condemned “the manner in which the claim was made”. He accused the players of “stirring up the public.”

He informed that 2 million had been decided long before the competition ended yesterday and the players were informed. He finds the offered sum significant and estimated that the players receive even two times more money than their coaches. Mr. Njoh Ekiti added that the Fecabasket is not concerned by this matter of premiums, but rather the state which manages it.

This new case of bonuses occurred more than four months after the one staged by the female national team in June 2015. On their return from the World Cup (football), they had demanded payment of their premiums in their entirety while the sporting authorities planned to be allowed to take 16% to be repaid to the tax administration.

Before this episode others had marked the life of other Cameroonian selections in the country of Roger Milla the laughing stock of the world.