Romain Molina, the French investigative journalist, has made explosive allegations against Cameroon and Ghana football federations. He has said in his latest video that the federations of the two countries accepted bribes from some players to include them in the FIFA World Cup 2022 squads.

Accusing both the federations of corruption and politics, Molina said that while some players paid money to be included, others paid to also play in the World Cup matches for them. 

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He revealed the news in a video on his YouTube channel, but it is in French. In the video, he says that with the January transfer window soon to open, the World Cup has become a hotbed for agents to influence players’ image so that their value in the January transfer window can go up. 

Here’s the video. 

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The federations of both countries have not responded to Molina’s allegations. However, corruption in African football is nothing new for anyone who follows the sport closely. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad was banned by FIFA for five years and fined $220,000 in November 2022 for being investigated on corruption allegations. The official reason given was that he violated FIFA’s code of ethics.

Molina had earlier accused the Cameroon government of covering up controversies during AFCON by paying influencers. He alleged that the government offered influencers and journalists lucrative contracts and invited them to the country with the condition that they will have to say good things about Cameroon. He also shared a copy of the contract that he claimed Cameroon offered.

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Ghana and Cameroon could not qualify for the knockouts of the World Cup. Ghana, who were in group H, lost to both Portugal and Uruguay while managing a win against South Korea. Cameroon, on the other hand, failed to win a single match in G.