Cameroon’s soccer team are heading to Egypt for the Africa Cup of Nations after initially refusing to board a flight because of a players’ pay dispute, the team said in a statement yesterday.
The champions face Guinea-Bissau in their opening match of the tournament on Tuesday, but the players did not appear for their flight on Thursday evening amid a spat over bonus payments.
“We are not satisfied (with the government’s proposition), but we have decided to end all negotiation concerning our premiums,” said the statement.
“We will be travelling to Egypt on Friday.”
Pay disputes before major competitions are not unusual for African soccer federations who often do not have sufficient resources to pay their players high sums. Nigeria and Ghana have experienced similar problems in recent World Cups.
Ministry of sports spokesman Gabriel Nloga said the players had each been paid a bonus of 20mn CFA francs ($34,692). A source at Cameroon’s soccer federation said the players had asked for twice that.
Following negotiations, the ministry of sport agreed yesterday to pay each player a one-off 5mn CFA franc bonus once they have won their first match in Egypt. Cameroon has a rich soccer history, with both male and female teams taking part in a number of past World Cups.
The women’s team was one of three African teams to qualify for the World Cup taking place in France. They face England in the last 16 on Sunday.
But the Central African country was last year stripped of its right to host the 2019 Nations Cup due to delays in preparations for the tournament and security concerns.
 Meanwhile, a vast security operation greeted tens of thousands of largely red-clad supporters in Cairo ahead of the opening match in the Africa Cup of Nations, with the tournament kicking off against a backdrop of terror attacks and only days after the death of former Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.
According to local media, citing security sources, the number of security personnel involved throughout the competition will total 15,000 spanning the four host cities — Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Ismailia — and six stadiums in use.
Heavily armed personnel and armoured vehicles are taking up positions around the grounds, three of which are in the capital, with local media reporting fans for the curtain-raiser between hosts Egypt and Zimbabwe would no longer be granted access to the 75,000-capacity Cairo International after 6.30pm (1630 GMT), three and a half hours before kick-off.
Numerous checkpoints were in place around the perimeter of the expansive venue, while drones will reportedly be used during matches to “identity” fans and take pictures that can be “transferred to the relevant authority handling stadium security to match them with FAN ID database”.
A system will also be used to track “every fan from the moment they enter the stadium until the moment they leave through the gates”, according to local media.
Set to run well into the scorching month of July, the Cup of Nations marks the first time Egypt has hosted a major sports tournament since longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was ousted by mass protests in 2011.