- Target:
- Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT)
- Region:
- Cameroon
- Website:
- www.camfoot.com
Dear Mr. Iya,
We are writing to draw your attention to news that has been circulating through many western media, about your supposed plan to hire Mr. Javier Clementé as the new coach of our national football team - the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
We as dedicated fans of our national team and patriotic citizens of our beloved country feel that the hiring of this man shall be counter productive to our aspiration of picking up the pieces and moving forward after a disappointing and chaotic FIFA World Cup 2010.
We are concerned that, the problems that marred our word cup outing, mainly locker room disharmony and poor tactical directives from the bench, could only be worsened if this man, Mr. Clementé is hired, because of, but not limited to the following reasons:
1. Mr. Clementé has a very questionable racist reputation. We will like to recall your attention to the incident that occurred in January 2006, when he racially abused our captain Samuel Eto´o as acting like "people who had just come down out of the trees". You could review that incident on this BBC link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/4617106.stm
Although Mr. Clementé apologised and tried to put a different spin to his statements, we believe that this past could be potentially very eruptive. And at a time when we need harmony and clean locker room more than ever in our team, we are convinced that Mr. Clementé cannot be the man for the situation.
2. Although Mr. Clementé has a rich and admirable resumé, we notice that he has not won anything in 26 years. The game has evolved a lot since the last time he was successful, and at a time when we need a coach with recent proven and successful track record, we are concerned about his aptitude and ability to be succesful at the highest level in the modern game.
In view of the above concerns and many more not herein included, we the undersigned wish to call on Mr. Iya Mohamed and FECAFOOT to stop any plans, if any so far, of hiring Mr. Clementé as coach of our so beloved team.
We request FECAFOOT take a serious look into our concerns, and if there have already been any pre-agreements or contacts with Mr. Clementé about coaching our team, these should be severed immediately, before it is too late.
Without putting your judgment or powers into question, we would also like to hereby, let you know that popular consensus points to fact that, the fans and citizens of Cameroon would prefer to have a Cameroonian citizen as head coach of their team. We therefore, call on you to take this seriously into consideration as you make a choice for the next coach of our Indomitable Lions of Cameroon. Another petition on this topic is going on simultaneously, and can be followed under this link: http://www.lapetition.be/en-ligne/pour-un-entraneur-camerounais-la-tte-des-lions-indomptables--7970.html
Respectfully,
Fans of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and members of http://www.camfoot.com/forums
We wish to also let you know that a separate Petition letter has been sent to Mr. Clementé. Here below is content of that letter:
To Mr. Clementé Javier
13.08.2010
RE: Your choice as the head coach of the Cameroon National Football Team
Dear Mr. Clementé,
We wish to draw you attention to the fact that there are very serious concerns by Cameroonians about the possibility of you taking over as the head couch of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon. With all due respect to your profile both as a player and a football coach, we strongly believe that you cannot serve any good to our team as the head coach, due to, but not limited to the following reasons:
1. The incident of racist comments made by you towards one of our players, and current captain, in January of 2006 while you were head coach of Athletico Bilbao is still very fresh in our memories. Although you went on to apologize, and the victim duly accepted your apology, we Cameroonians and fans of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon are still not convinced about your integrity as the man to lead our team. Your actions unfortunately left a bad taste in our mouths.
2. With all due respect of you achievement as player and coach, we believe that you have not had any success in your recent past that we can point to as prove that you are able to achieve success in the modern game at the highest level. Your last taste of success as a coach was as far back as 26 years ago, and you should know as well as we do that the game has evolved in multiple folds from when you were at the top of it.
3. Mindful of the unfortunate impression that most Cameroonians have of you as a racist (rightly, or wrongly, but based on the event of January 2006), and due the fact that you have never lived in Cameroon and therefore are not vest with our ways, culture and customs, we believe that you will not be suitable for the job. We believe that you will have communication and culture clash problems with the people of Cameroon, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and its fans.
Mindful, but not limited to points 1-3, we hereby, call on you to concentrate on your current job and forget about the possibility of ever coaching Cameroon. We can here and now, assure you that, should you decide to go ahead and negotiate for the job, you shall never enjoy the support of us, the fans, and as a professional, you surely do not want to find yourself in such a position.
A similar petition has been sent to FECAFOOT, calling on them to severe any plans hitherto arranged, for you to be employed to take up that position. An online petition is also going on against you, and you can follow that through this link: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38403.html
We wish to thank you for showing interest in our football and country, but are sorry to ask you to refrain from trying to get that job, as you´ll never gain our support. We wish you the very best in your search for a suitable team to coach.
Respectfully
Fans of Cameroon and the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, and Members of http://www.camfoot.com/forums (Official cyber home of the fans of The Indomitable Lions)
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The Javier Clementé is bad for the Indomitable Lions petition to Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) was written by Emile Tabu Ojong and is in the category Football at GoPetition.