World Cup 2014: Cameroon to investigate match-fixing claims

Posted Tuesday, July 01, 2014 by theguardian.com

• Cameroon FA to look into team’s World Cup group games
• Match against Croatia at centre of investigation

Cameroon's Alex Song was sent off against Croatia at the World Cup. His manager, Volker Finke, has denied wrongdoing by any players

Cameroon are to investigate claims of match-fixing in their World Cup group games, especially the match against Croatia, the country’s football federation said on Monday.

A statement from Joseph Owona, president of the federation’s normalisation committee, said its ethics committee had been instructed to investigate the claims.

Cameroon lost all three Group A matches, including a 4-0 defeat by Croatia. In the Croatia match Alex Song was sent off for striking Mario Mandzukic in the back in an off-the-ball incident and two of the Cameroon players, Benoît Assou-Ekotto and Benjamin Moukandjo, clashed and had to be separated by team-mates.

Cameroon’s coach, Volker Finke, denied wrongdoing by his players when it was put to him during the World Cup. 'It must be a rumour, because I have never heard anything about that, it’s not something that reached me,' he said.

'I don’t read the paper. I have honestly never heard anything about this topic. I know my team and it is out of the question. I find it completely impossible that my players would give away the match. Don’t worry about that at all. Don’t worry.'