Sport, your merciless universe: Children, prostitutes and fetishism, the other face of the Capefoot Academy

"After a match, we went back to his place. I was in the living room and he told me to wait because he was going to pick up a prostitute. I thought it was weird because I was only 12..." This former Capefoot resident continues his story. Until now, he had only told a handful of people what he recalls here - even hiding these painful memories from his family. He has since given up soccer.

"Capello came back and told me he hadn't found a prostitute. He said: 'Come on, I'll show you how to masturbate!' I didn't understand, I didn't want to, he insisted. I pretended I needed to go to the bathroom to get out of the house. He came and stood next to the toilet door: 'I'll come in and show you how to masturbate!' Several times, he repeated this. Then I was able to escape. I was lucky because I wasn't assaulted or raped, but I was pretty traumatized. I was just a kid..."

Blast has collected dozens of similar stories. "He stroked my sex to teach me how to masturbate," testifies one of these witnesses. He'd tell me to masturbate in front of him afterwards, promising that it would help my career, that he could send me to the Whites (sic) as he put it (implied in Europe, for a professional contract, editor's note). That was his deal: you masturbate in front of him in exchange for his help with soccer."

In schools too

The capital of the West region, Bafoussam is home to a multitude of teams and training centers. "There are a huge number of youth academies," confirms Christian, who spoke publicly about his experience with Capello in a Space (a live Twitter broadcast) organized by Cameroonian media outlet La Tanière 237.

"I come from a disadvantaged background, as many do, but I was lucky enough to receive a good education with very vigilant parents. Coaches like Capello particularly target disadvantaged youngsters. They know that a pair of boots or a jersey represents something unattainable for many. Capello offered this in exchange for masturbation. He was exploiting young people's misery.

Kamdem Guy Alain, also known as Capello or Capi, is well known throughout the West region's soccer scene, having coached youth teams at several clubs (Panthère FC, Racing Club de Bafoussam, Fovu de Baham and Feutcheu FC), while also launching his own training center, Capefoot. Also a former physical education teacher at Bafoussam's Collège la Confiance - also Colaco -, Capello was in charge of the school soccer team.

"He promised me a place if I said yes to masturbation," confirms a former student. He was interested in my sperm. He wanted to keep it." A practice denounced by several testimonies gathered by Blast. Requests that were also made to potential recruits for one of the clubs he coached (Panthère FC).

"What he did with it afterwards, I don't know, but that was what he was looking for: to see us masturbate in front of him until we harvested our sperm." And do what with it? No one really knows, even if some of the young people who passed through Capefoot evoke the hypothesis of esoteric rites with other people.

One Capello behind the other...

Capello owes his rise in Cameroonian soccer mainly to one man: a former captain in the air force, Joseph Feutcheu, his godfather, chaired the West regional league and several teams, where he hired Capello (as at Panthère Sportive du Ndé) and rubbed shoulders with another... Capello, also a coach.

Alain Wabo has also inherited this nickname, chosen as a tribute to Fabio Capello, the Italian coach who guided AC Milan to several major European titles in the 90s and 2000s. Under Feutcheu's guidance, the Cameroonian Capellos worked together both on and off the pitch, according to several former recruits. It's a system," says Christian. The Bafoussam Capello wasn't the only one involved in this practice. They protected each other as soon as there was a problem: if families wanted to lodge a complaint, they were dissuaded and told that the coach was leaving. That's how he ended up at another club, without any problems.

Pursued after assaulting minors, Alain Wabo had to flee Cameroon to find refuge in Gabon, where a... third Capello - Patrick Assoumou Eyi - was rampant. It was also in Gabon, in December 2021, that a resounding scandal was revealed by The Guardian. The British daily's revelations about what remains one of the biggest paedocriminal networks in the history of sport led to several prison sentences. The Cameroonian also played in Equatorial Guinea, where he was crowned champion with Renacimiento FC.

You had to sleep

Alain Wabo, who died in October 2010 at the age of 38, rose through the ranks from nothing to the position of coach of Cameroon's junior team. That just goes to show how widespread paedophilia is in our milieu," says a former international. I can't talk too much publicly because we live in an omerta, but Capello made me sexual propositions to join the national team. I was 16, 17... We talked about it between us, it was normal: if you wanted to play with him, you had to sleep with him".

Federal promotion

It's no secret in Cameroon that the behaviours denounced and attributed to the Capellos have never been punished by the courts, or even led to a suspension from sport. Samuel Eto'o, now president of FECAFOOT, was warned on March 1, 2022 at the request of one of the victims, although he seemed keen to tackle the issue head-on: "If you have proof of what you're saying, you come or you send me the youngsters and their parents, and we'll go and see the prosecutor IMMEDIATELY," replied the former Barcelona and national team star after the warning. Not only am I here, but no one will be able to threaten them.

A salutary and rare reaction, in an environment where managers are accustomed to looking the other way and burying their heads in the sand. In the end, it led to nothing concrete. After receiving recordings of witnesses recounting the events, as well as the contact details of a presumed victim who was willing to talk to FECAFOOT, Eto'o promised that "someone I trust" would contact this witness. Nine months later, no call has been received. And Kamdem Guy Alain (Capello 1) continues to work in Bafoussam. Worse still, last September his mentor Joseph Feutcheu was appointed vice-president of FECAFOOT's national and international competitions committee. A promotion endorsed by Samuel Eto'o himself.

"We feel like saying 'silence, we're raping'. Once again, corruption is paying for the silence and complicity of certain people, and the law of omerta is de rigueur", denounces Carine Mambou, of the CAD AID foundation. This Dublin-based NGO fights against gender-based violence, child rape, sexual abuse and harassment in Africa. Several years ago, CAD AID launched investigations into the world of soccer, particularly within the team managed by Kamdem Guy Alain. Mr. Kamdem takes advantage of his position as coach, which gives him a certain authority over the children he is supposed to mentor, and he abuses it," asserts Carine Mambou. Accused of molestation, sexual practices and being the trafficker in a sperm network, invited to explain himself on this subject in 2018, he declined our interpellation. Yet the testimonies of his victims, whose ages range from 10 to 40, are horrifying and traumatic, to say the least."

The beginning of something

Although Kamdem Guy "Capello" Alain has denied the accusations against him, the Cameroonian authorities have nonetheless begun to observe this unfortunate affair closely, following a succession of new testimonies broadcast over the last few days on social networks. According to our information, the case has been taken to the highest level of government.

This is the start of something," says Christian, optimistic that the authorities will finally react. We had to get the word out with this first case. The others will come on their own. This is our chance to save Cameroon soccer and our young brothers.

By Romain Molina