Cameroon: SW Football Boiling with Scandals, Accusations of “Match Fixing and Favouritism”

Following his suspension, Henry Njalla Quan Junior has resigned as the fourth Vice President of FECAFOOT

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

BUEA, July 4, 2023 – For more than six days now, the football milieu is the South West Region and the country, in general, has been boiling with distrust, accusations of match-fixing and the closure of one of the biggest and most recognisable sports institution in the region, the Njalla Quan Sports Academy.

It was Wednesday, June 28, and Njalla Quan Sports Academy took on Kumba City FC for the first leg of the semifinals of the SW Mini Interpools competition, a leeway to the National Interpools. A game plagued with catastrophic errors from the referee William, saw a total of 5 red cards dished out to NQSA, 3 to players, 1 to the assistant coach and 1 to the medical personnel. As if that was not enough, referee William, gave an invisible penalty to Kumba City FC after the ball struck the knee of a player of NQSA.

In protest of the decision not to have the game replayed, the proprietor of Njalla Quan Sports Academy, Henry Njalla Quan Junior, has suspended all the football operations of the school and said: "… It would be difficult for us to continue our activities under these conditions which currently surround football in the South West region and Cameroon.”

“However, the events surrounding our South West Regional League semi-final match against Kumba City FC have shown that football results, unfortunately, depend on political- off-pitch issues,” the release signed by Njalla Quan Junior stated. The Club announced that it will transfer its players to another academy of the same type. But also, will sell its assets to another structure.

In a letter signed by FECAFOOT SW President Ndazeh Valery, he called for stakeholders to remain united, peaceful and stay focused. He said: "The SW Regional League of FECAFOOT is in control of the developments in the region and will employ all strategies to promote a peaceful atmosphere…"

23 years of outstanding service

Since its creation in September 2000, Njalla Quan Sports Academy has trained a largely significant number of footballers from different countries across Africa, many of whom have developed into professional footballers, winning titles internationally with their clubs and national teams. The club was founded by Mr Henry Njalla Quan on 15 September 2000.

“To safeguard the interests of our helpless young players, we are working with our international and national partners to facilitate the transfer of our most mature and talented players to professional clubs. We shall also be contacting the parents of all our trainees aged 11-16 to facilitate their integration into other academies. We also commit towards supporting our staff who shall lose their jobs as a result of this decision,” Henry Njalla Quan Junior added.

“We use this opportunity to thank all our partners, supporters, parents of trainees, players, staff and all people of goodwill for their support during our 23 years of existence. We do not however exclude the possibility of resuming our football operations once the conditions necessary for equitable and fair competition within Cameroon Football have been proven to exist. Our other activities such as the "walk for life" shall continue while we will entrust the management of our existing assets to a 3rd party company.”

“Despite the untimely demise of our founder in 2012, our activities continued normally, and we managed to float in the top tier of Cameroon football for three more seasons before eventually suffering relegation in 2015 which led us to shift our focus entirely towards our youth academy. Despite the many challenges brought about by the Socio-political crisis in our SW Region, which emerged in late 2016, we braved the storm and pushed through, giving youths from the South West Region and Cameroon, in general, the opportunity to perfect their football skills while continuing with their academics through our unique "sports-studies program.”