- Colombe of Dja paid salaries as stated by FECAFOOT last season but didn’t receive the 48 millions FCFA Elite One championship clubs were promised
- François Bille told the club’s General Assembly on Saturday that they spent over 90 millions FCFA on salaries
- Colombe have set aside 330 millions FCFA as budget for the coming season
The General Manager of Colombe of Dja and Lobo, François Bille has staggeringly revealed that the club didn’t get a dime representing subventions from the Cameroon Football federation (FECAFOOT) all of last season despite its huge expenditure on salaries amongst other items.
Mr Bille made the jaw dropping revelation on Sunday as Colombe of Dja faithfuls rallied to plan the club’s upcoming campaign.
Speaking to the Colombe family and in the presence of Ernest Obama who was commissioned to represent FECAFOOT at the event, Mr Bille revealed the club coughed 90.7 millions FCFA and didn’t receive the promised 48 millions FCFA from the country’s lead football body.
This revelation adds Colombe to a long list of clubs including second vice champions YOSA of Bamenda, Fovu of Baham, Bamboutos FC of Mbouda, AS Fortuna of Mfou, Aigle Royal of Moungo on the list of grumbling clubs who are yet to receive their dues.
Despite the challenges, Colombe of Dja, who finished third in the MTN Elite One championship and reached the final of the Cup of Cameroon.
For the coming season, the club has voted a 330 millions FCFA budget, an increment from the previous season – surely taking into consideration that they may win the Cup of Cameroon and qualify for the preliminaries of the CAF Confederation Cup which is more demanding.
We understand there have been default of payments in the past three seasons because FECAFOOT categorically refused to pay clubs that had unpaid salaries to players though the FA too fails to refund the money to the state coffers that gave them the funds.
Though a number of clubs in the top-flight and second tier championship have made this claim of not receiving their subventions, FECAFOOT hasn’t issue a contradiction, thus leaving many to settle for the clubs’ version of the story.
This worrying situation has made more than a quorum of professional league clubs to fail to meet their financial obligations with its employees. A SYNAFOC report at the end of last season showed no club in the second championship paid all salaries for the eight months season while only Stade Renard and Victoria United FC met their entire obligations with their players in the 2023/24 season.
Over the years, clubs in Cameroon have shown overdependence on subventions. While pundits recommend the clubs go all out and get sponsors to fund their operations, it must be said that the system hasn’t enhanced that.
The case of Colombe largely considered as a ‘system club’ is an eye opener for stakeholders who have preferred to disregard collective bargaining as a way to force FECAFOOT respect their commitment.
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