As the Cameroon national men’s football team gets ready to start its World Cup campaign, its former kit supplier has made the bizarre move of selling gear for the team on its website.
Until the summer of 2022, the Cameroon team was outfitted by French manufacturer Le Coq Sportif. But the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) unilaterally ended that contract and signed another with One All Sports, a company that until recently had focused mainly on motorsports apparel. One All Sports unveiled their kits for the team on Saturday, November 5, less than three weeks before the country’s first match at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The situation led to Le Coq Sportif suing Fecafoot to force them to honour the original terms of their contract, which ran through December 31, 2023, and included the World Cup. On Thursday, November 3, a judge ruled in favor of Le Coq Sportif, saying the contract was still valid. Fecafoot has indicated that it will appeal the decision, and Le Coq Sportif issued a statement it would not continue legal proceeding during the World Cup.
But now, Le Coq Sportif has given fans a glimpse of what might have been by selling the Cameroon-branded gear it had produced on its website, including home and away jerseys and shorts, goalkeeper jerseys and shorts, training gear, T-shirts and caps.
The jerseys have diamond-shaped side panels that feature a sublimated tonal lion and stripes over the left shoulder that mirror the Cameroonian flag. The home jersey is green with a red collar, while the away jersey is red with a green collar. Both have the Fecafoot logo on the right chest and a roaring lion crest (the team’s nickname is “The Indomitable Lions”) on the left chest. Le Coq Sportif’s logo is in the middle of the chest.
The jerseys are priced at 100 Euros for an authentic version and 85 Euros for a replica version.
The green home jersey is pictured with red shorts on Le Coq Sportif’s website, while the red away jersey is pictured with green shorts. Both pairs of the shorts also have diamond-shaped side panels with the tonal lion. The Fecafoot logo is on the right leg, while the Le Coq Sportif logo and flag stripes are on the left leg.
Both kits were paired with yellow socks.
Le Coq Sportif is also selling goalkeeper jerseys in purple, black and cobalt blue. Each contains a pattern on the front and back of thin lines forming chevrons that run across the jersey in opposite directions.
This pattern is also found on a white jersey that’s offered for sale. It’s unclear if this would be a third match jersey or a training shirt. The white shirt has a solid white crew neck collar along with a red right sleeve cuff and a green left cuff.
Le Coq Sportif has also produced and is selling several T-shirts and a ball cap with the team’s nickname in French — “Les Lions Indomptables” — along with a polo shirt and sweatpants.
It remains to be seen how Fecafoot will react to Le Coq Sportif’s move or how it might affect the ongoing legal proceedings between the two sides.