(ATR) Cameroon’s football federation is investigating allegations that "seven bad apples" in its team helped rig matches at the World Cup.
The match-fixing claims were made by Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match-fixer from Singapore, in the German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Cameroon crashed out of the World Cup with three defeats in which they scored only one goal but conceded nine. They were the first African side to exit the competition after losing 1-0 to Mexico, 4-0 to Croatia, and 4-1 to Brazil. Cameroon president Paul Biya called for an inquiry into the Indomitable Lions’ poor performance in the tournament.
Perumal reportedly correctly forecast the Cameroon-Croatia result and that a player would be sent off. Alex Song was red-carded.
"Recent allegations of fraud around Cameroon's 2014 FIFA World Cup three preliminary games, especially Cameroon versus Croatia, as well of the 'existence of seven bad apples [in the team],' do not reflect the values and principles promoted by our administration, in line with FIFA's code of conduct and the ethics of our nation," the federation known as FECAFOOT said in a statement.
"Our administration has already instructed its ethics committee to further investigate these accusations.
"We are strongly committed to employ all means necessary to resolve this disruptive matter in the shortest delays."
The statement added: "In the meantime, we legitimately request that any related information, unless brought before our federation and/or its ethics committee, be held for or treated as mere assumption.
"We wish to reinstate that in 55 years of existence, FECAFOOT has never been sanctioned for, involved in, or even linked to match-fixing or any fraud of any kind."
FIFA has yet to issue comment on the Cameroon case but stressed that "the integrity of the game is a top priority for FIFA and as such we take any allegations of match manipulation very seriously."
Written by Nick Devlin
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