Cairo: Reigning African Footballer of the Year, Samuel Eto`o has been banned for 15 matches by a Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) disciplinary committee after a players` strike forced a friendly in Algeria to be cancelled.
Eto`o was voted African Footballer of the Year a record four times and has represented the Cameroonian team "Indomitable Lions" for more than a decade.
But the striker has frequently disagreed with officials and took the brunt of the blame when a strike prevented the friendly match from going ahead.
Eto`o and his team-mates claimed they were not paid money and the fixture had to be canned with Algeria, claiming one million dollars compensation for lost revenue.
The former Barcelona player has two weeks to appeal the ban which would rule him out of a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tie in Guinea Bissau Feb 29 and 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya in June.
IANS
First Published: Saturday, December 17, 2011, 17:25