Cameroon sack Head coach

The Cameroonian Football Federation
(FECAFOOT) has sacked Hugo Broos 10 months
after the coach masterminded an unexpected
African Nations Cup triumph.
After the nation's catastrophic 2014 World Cup,
Broos was hailed for his work in taking a side
that had failed in Brazil to the continental crown
in Gabon in February.
However, Cameroon failed to win any of their
three games at the 2017 Confederations Cup, and
Broos was then unable to steer the team to next
summer's World Cup.
In a statement, FECAFOOT's normalisation
committee said Broos' failure to return the
country to an "honourable" place in FIFA's world
ranking -- they are currently 45th, the seventh-
highest ranked African nation -- and to "live in
Cameroon during the execution of the contract to
follow the national championships" were further
reasons for his dismissal.
It also noted Broos' inability to convince "several
important players" not to reject their call-up to
the national team, such as Liverpool's Joel Matip
before the African Nations Cup, and highlighted
that -- with the 2019 edition to be held in the
country -- "it has happened to Cameroon several
times in the past to change coaches a few
months before the competition and to then
perform very honourably in that competition and
even win it."
Broos, whose contract with FECAFOOT ran until
February 2018, remains in the running for the CAF
African Coach of the Year award.
The honour, for which former Valencia and Inter
Milan boss Hector Cuper, currently the coach of
Egypt, is also a contender, will be handed over at
a ceremony in the Ghanaian capital of Accra on
Jan. 4.