Semi-Professional Cameroon Players Look To Join India's I-League

Several footballers from a second-string Cameroon side "want to play in India's lucrative I-League, given the falling standards back home," according to the IANS. The Cameroon league is semi-professional, and the players who are paid the most receive only about $1,000 a month. Cameroon Coach Emmanuel Bosso said, "We are trying to make it fully professional." The "financially unattractive domestic league, a player's revolt and a struggle to find adequate replacements for aging stars" such as Samuel Eto'o, Benoit Assou-Ekkoto and Eric Djemba-Djemba, "saw the African giants tumble 48 places from a high 11th rank on the FIFA charts" to 59th since '09. Officials are trying to "pacify the players" by promising to convert the semi-professional league into a full-fledged league "to keep them home." Cameroon has qualified for the World Cup more than any other African team, but it fears that it may be difficult "to make it in the next couple of editions." Additionally, a team that has won the African Nations Cup four times "has failed to even qualify for the 2012 edition" (IANS, 9/4).