How Cameroon missed out on a historic FIBA world cup ticket

There will be no Joel Embiid, no Pascal Siakam and no Luc Mbah A Moute in the FIBA World Cup in China this 2019. Cameroon will have to wait another five years to try to make history by qualifying for their first ever basketball world cup.

                                  photo credits: fiba.com

After an initially respectable qualification run for the 2019 world cup in China, the basketball lions slumped in the second qualifying phase in group E and left their fate in the hands of teams in group F.

Here is how Cameroon came so close and yet missed a historic FIBA world cup ticket.

The qualifiers
In June 2018, Cameroon finished the first round of qualifiers for the basketball world cup second in group A, behind Tunisia. The Lions had lost only two games in the two windows in that round, both of them against Tunisia – and one by a slim 66-67 in Yaounde in 2017. That defeat will come back to haunt them in the later stages of the qualifiers.

The road to China continued with the second round qualifying windows where twelve countries divided in two groups were left in the race for the 5 available spots for Africa. The top two in each group plus the best third would be the chosen ones.

That’s where things really began to unravel for Cameroon who found themselves in group E alongside Chad, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Angola.

In September, during the fourth window, Cameroon lost two crucial games to Egypt and Angola, which left them in a terrible position compounded by a second defeat to Angola in December in the fifth window. This meant the Lions had won seven out twelve games, three less than Tunisia and two less than Angola, who picked up the two direct tickets up for grabs in the group, leaving third-place Cameroon in a cliff hanger that will be settled in February.

         photo credit: fiba.com

Even so, the chances of Cameroon making it to China were high, considering that they were in competition with Cote D’Ivoire and the Central Africa Republic, who had to beat an undefeated and already qualified Nigeria in Group F by a pretty large margin, to best Cameroon.

Match fixing?

A basketball analyst, Julio Chitunda, opined in February that Cameroon was going to qualify for China 2019, “unless, CAR and Cote d’Ivoire come up with some incredible performances”.

Though unlikely, that is exactly what happened. The Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire pulled an eye-widening 72 to 46 victory over D’Tigers of Nigeria on 22 February, in the final window, effectively snuffing out Cameroon’s chances.

With their historic qualification disappearing before their eyes, Cameroon’s basketball federation erupted in a fit of rage and accused the Ivorians and Nigerians of match-fixing.

“It is likely that the game has been fixed,” said Fecabasket vice president Eric Niat on the CRTV National Station’s show, Sports Razzmatazz. “There is some proof and we sent all the proof to FIBA…We are waiting on FIBA who told us that they are going to investigate the situation and they are gonna give us the result of their investigation.”
The Nigerian coach Alex Nwora was livid after hearing the allegations.

“Somebody is questioning my integrity and my livelihood and if it is coming from Cameroon then that is hypocrisy” said Nwora in Abidjan in February. “They’re gonna blame this on us and that’s an insult. How much is anybody gonna give me or my country to sell a game?”

The absence of Cameroon’s NBA Stars

There are questions about how Cameroon ended up depending on the outcome of Central Africa and Cote D’Ivoire’s games. Some of these surround the absence of some star players from the NBA like Pascal Siakam, Joel Embiid and Luc Mbah A Moute throughout the qualifiers.

                        Joel Embiid

The federation says they tried to enlist their help but contractual obligations prevented them from making the qualifying rounds.
“We had contact with Joel Embiid but he was saying that it doesn’t depend him but on his team because he has a high price and his team management spent a lot of money on him,” said Niat.

“I talked to the president of Toronto Raptors about Pascal Siakam and he was like, ‘you know, yes, why not’ but he never called back afterwards.”

       Ben Mbala

CRTV popular sports editor and basketball pundit Njie Enow Ebai says “I doubt if (FECABASKET) ever wrote officially to Sixers, Raptors or Clippers to ask for Embiid, Siakam or Mbah A Moute! Calling or texting Franchise Presidents is different from writing officially to the Clubs! NBA teams can release players if things are done properly!
“That’s why it was possible for Al Farouk Aminu of Portland Trailblazers to play for Nigeria, for Gorgui Dieng from Minnesota Timber Wolves to suit up for Senegal or Dallas Mavericks Salah Mejri to play for Tunisia. The approach has to be better.”

Njie adds that even coaching was not properly managed. “Cameroon was the only African team to have 3 coaches swapping from Brazilian Carlos Antonio Barbosa to French Jean Denys Choulet and ending the qualifiers with Cameroonian Lazare Adingono.”

While the basketball federation waits for FIBA to rule on the match-fixing complaint, draws for the world cup will take place on 16 March, and it is almost certain Angola, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia will be Africa’s flagbearers at the tournament.

Helen Ngoh

@Helenngoh

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