A top-tier football match in Cameroon ended prematurely on April 23 when irate fans of the home team, Stade Renard of Melong, "violently" attacked match officials at halftime. The incident occurred during a Round 20 clash of the MTN Elite One championship against league leaders Colombe du Dja-et-Lobo at the Melong Municipal Stadium, according to a statement from the Transitional Council for Professional Football (CTFP), the governing body for professional leagues in the country.
"Despite the intervention of law enforcement and mediation attempts by some local authorities, the referees, concerned for their safety and in accordance with current refereeing regulations, decided not to resume the match," the CTFP statement elaborated.
The trouble began in the 10th minute of the game following a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge inside Stade Renard's penalty area. The referee signaled for a penalty, which Colombe successfully converted, sparking immediate and intense anger among the home supporters. "There was no foul. A foul is when you come from behind the player. That’s when it’s considered a charge on the player. But when it’s shoulder to shoulder, as we see in the circulating video, there’s no foul. We call that 50-50," explained an amateur referee familiar with the situation.
The events in Melong are not isolated, as complaints about refereeing have become a recurring issue in both MTN Elite One and MTN Elite Two. Alleging biased officiating led to their club's relegation, officials of Bamboutos de Mbouda recently decided to withdraw their team after Round 19, following a 1-0 defeat against Dynamo de Douala. Subsequently, an unverified video circulated online showing supporters of another Elite One club urging their leadership to follow Bamboutos' example and also protest perceived poor refereeing.
Unisport de Bafang was among the first to openly criticize the standard of officiating. Back in April 2023, Donald Ngameni, the former president of the MTN Elite Two club, voiced his frustration to journalists, lamenting what he described as favoritism towards certain teams. "We are just the entertainment of the championship (...) You cannot justify this kind of refereeing," Ngameni stated at the time. A coach, echoing Ngameni's sentiments, added, "Football is now driven by referees. Training sessions are no longer useful."
Colombe du Dja-et-Lobo has frequently been mentioned in public discussions as a team allegedly benefiting from favorable refereeing decisions. "You can’t prevent a supporter or even a football stakeholder from saying what they think. As for us, we don’t focus on these accusations," said Willy Nyatte, Colombe's communications officer.
Over the 20 rounds of the current championship season, Nyatte pointed out that his team has only been awarded two penalties—one against Fauve Azur and the one this week against Stade Renard de Melong. "If we were really favored, we would have been champions long ago, for a club created in 1953," he added, noting that Colombe is aiming for its first-ever Cameroonian championship title this season.
Nyatte concluded by criticizing what he sees as a prevalent mentality: "As soon as there is a defeat, people look for a scapegoat." He cited their first-leg match against Panthère du Ndé as an example. Colombe won that game 3-0 in Yaoundé, and Panthère supporters blamed the referees, "even though their club was coming off a nine-match unbeaten streak," Nyatte noted, illustrating that accusations against referees are often exaggerated.
Michel Ange Nga