Debutant at the just ended 2023 AFCON, Nathan Douala is amongst the 62 players that have been declared temporarily ineligible for the tournament to end the top 2023/2024 flight Elite One Championship dubbed MTN Elite One PlayOffs Up on counts of age falsification according to the Cameroon Football Federation . On the list published on Sunday, March 10, 2024 the Victoria United midfielder, registered as Wilfried Nathan Douala with FECAFOOT is accused of dual identity
The highly profiled player amongst 61 others facing age-related scandals are provisionally out of the MTN Elite One PlayOffs scheduled to kickoff on Friday March 15, 2024 in the town of Douala.
Nathan Douala’s call-up for the just ended 2023 AFCON in Cote D’Ivoire by the former Indomitable Lions Coach, Rigobert Song sparked debates on sports platform and the social media on the doubtfulness of his age, others even said he could never be 17 years while another camp accused him of falsifying changing even his names
Another club that has been hit hard on this dual identity case is top flight league one side and Bamenda-based team, Yong Sports Club whose thirteen players have been declared ineligible for the PlayOffs Up. Victoria United alias Opopo where the said Nathan Douala plies the trade counts seven players just like AS Fourtuna of Yaounde
Clubs that have been stamped sanctions
# Yong Sports Academy, 13 players
# Victoria United , 7 players
# AS Fortuna, 7 players
# UMS of Loum, 5 players
# Colombe du Sud, 5 players
# Gazelle FA of Garoua, 4 players
# Dynamo of Douala , 4 players
# Union of Douala, 3 players
Fovu of Baham, 3 players
# Apejes of Mfou, 2 players
PWD of Bamenda, 2 players
#Bamboutos of Mbouda, 2 players
# Astres of Douala, 2 players
# Avion of Nkam, 2 players
# Fauve Azur, 2 players
Only four clubs have escaped the hands of the Cameroon Football Federation that has suffered age fraud in recent instances. They are;
# Canon of Yaounde
# Stade Renard of Melong
# Aigle Royal of Menoua
# Coton Sport of Garoua.
Accordingly, Nathan Douala’s case is referenced under Chapter 20 of CAF Competition Regulations, entitled as “Fraud-forgery-administrative error”
Citing Article to Article 45 “If CAF is informed, no matter the source, that a fraud or a forgery was committed by any means and /or support whatsoever by one or more national team(s), an investigation will be opened.”
Article 46 further elaborates that “In case the alleged facts are true, the national association concerned will be suspended from participation in the following two editions of the AFCON” and Article 47 posits “For any administrative error in the registration of players, the national association concerned will be suspended from participation in the next edition of the AFCON, and its team will be eliminated from the competition if the latter is still ongoing.”
Benly Anchunda @anchunda_benly
