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Samuel Eto’o is one of Africa’s greatest players. His glittering career included two Africa Cup of Nations titles with Cameroon and four African Player of the Year awards, plus Champions League, Spanish and Italian league titles with Barcelona and Inter Milan.

The president of Cameroon’s football federation (Fecafoot) was a visible presence at this year’s AFCON, shedding tears of joy as Cameroon advanced to the knockouts and dancing with the team in the dressing room. Now they are out — after defeat against Nigeria — the focus is likely to fall back on him alone.

He has packed a lot into his two years in charge. In June 2022, he was given a 22-month suspended prison sentence and fined £1.4million ($1.7m) after pleading guilty to a charge of tax fraud linked to his image rights. At the Qatar World Cup, Eto’o apologised for, as he put it, “a violent altercation” with a journalist.

Now, The Athletic has seen WhatsApp messages, emails, letters and audio recordings that a former Fecafoot executive claims are of Eto’o and others, which the former executive says support a wide-ranging list of accusations, including that Eto’o and close aides were involved in match-fixing, abuse of power, physical threats, inciting violence and spreading false information in Cameroon.

Read more below.