Cameroon depart for World Cup after settling pay dispute

Players had refused to travel to Brazil on Sunday due to row over World Cup bonuses

Cameroon's squad left for the World Cup early today after resolving a strike over bonuses that saw them refuse to board their plane to Brazil on Sunday.

The special flight carrying the "Indomitable Lions" left the capital Yaounde at 5am after the Cameroonian football federation, Fecafoot, paid each player a bonus of more than 5 million CFA francs ($10,400), in addition to a 50 million CFA francs bonus paid by the government.

The extra payment was equivalent to six per cent of the sum the Cameroonian federation is due to receive from Fifa for participation in the World Cup, the officials said.

Fecafoot had to take out a loan to pay the players because it would not receive the money from Fifa until three months after the World Cup is over, head of communication Laurence Fotso said.

READ MORE

The players had refused to leave their Yaounde hotel on Sunday.

"An agreement was finally reached and I don't want reporters to make a big sensation out of the whole story," said German head coach Volker Finke before the squad took off. "It was not really as great a problem as people made it out."

Cameroon have been drawn in Group A along with Mexico, Croatia and the host country, Brazil. Their first march is on Friday against Mexico.