Battle for the AFCON title is heating up, and so are off the field events. After a Monday night game between tournament favorites Cameroon and a surprise team Comoros, two stories unfolded. One is a tragedy which happened brefore the game, when crowds attempted to enter through a southern entrance at Olembe stadium in the capital Yaounde to watch the host nation play Comoros, and the commotion caused 8 deaths and over 50 injured. The second one is that the hosts were faced with accusations of cheating linked to the Covid tests, which forced the Comoros to play without a professional goalkeeper.#PlusDeCAN2021 🌍 – 🗣 “Je n’ai jamais accepté la tricherie et je ne l’accepterai jamais !” 👉 Dans “Jour de CAN”, @SamuelEtoo a tenu à s’exprimer au sujet des polémiques qui entourent les tests positifs au COVID-19 dans certaines sélections pic.twitter.com/53qBI877XA— CANAL+ SPORT Afrique (@cplussportafr) January 25, 2022 Samuel Eto’o, the president of the Cameroonian Federation wanted to be clear about the situation, and was a guest of Canal+ on Tuesday. “I would like to remind all your colleagues who launch impossible explanations, that the agency chosen to carry out the tests is not under the control of Cameroon, it is 100% under the control of CAF. I think the rules of the game were known by everyone before the start of the competition. I really, humbly wish that my country be respected. Tunisia had seven players test positive against Nigeria. I don’t think Tunisia played against Cameroon. Morocco, in its first meeting, was penalized, but did not play against Cameroon. It is not fair play to insinuate things, to accuse the Cameroonian government, to accuse me. I tried to be a great champion, but I was because I deserved all my victories. I never accepted cheating, and I never will. I hope this is clear to everyone and that the false debates that we want to blame on the state and the Cameroonian Federation will stop” said Eto’o. AFCON2021: Senegal through to quarters after controversy ladden clash with Cape VerdeTwelve members of the Comoros delegation, including both fit goalkeepers and manager Amir Abdou, have returned positive results, and they had to play against one of the tournament favorites on Monday. Youssouf M’Changama, scorer for the Comoros and elected man of the match was furious with the situation and talked after the game. “I want to send a little message to CAF: there are rules, but we are all in the Covid, there are adaptations everywhere, it is unacceptable that we do not adapt to our situation. We were missing a goalkeeper” said M’Changama.
