Cameroon accuses England ref of ‘dirty work’

Ian Watson

Cameroon midfielder Raissa Feudjio admits her team “didn’t want to play any more” after feeling hard-done-by in the wake of VAR decisions in their World Cup last-16 defeat to England.

Phil Neville’s side emerged with a 3-0 victory from a remarkable match in Valenciennes that saw Cameroon twice react to VAR decisions going against them by remonstrating with the officials at length and looking as if they might not continue playing.

England’s players – most notably Nikita Parris and Steph Houghton – were also on the receiving end of some considerably rough treatment, while Toni Duggan’s arm was spat on by Cameroon’s Augustine Ejangue. FIFA has said it is “looking into” the on-field incidents and will update in due course.

While Neville spoke afterwards of feeling “completely and utterly ashamed of the behaviour” of Cameroon, his counterpart Alain Djeumfa said there had been a “miscarriage of justice” and that his players “showed fair play”.

Feudjio claimed boss Djeumfa had told his team at half-time “the referee wants England to win”.

Feudjio also accused the referee of “dirty work” and said Cameroon players had reached the point where “we didn’t want to play any more” but continued because they were representing their country.

Feudjio said: “We continued playing for our country despite the referee doing her dirty work.

“She (White) was offside (replays in fact showed her to be clearly onside). But the referee did not even go to check the goal (by looking at footage pitchside). She gave the goal.

“But then our goal was disallowed and we found ourselves in a difficult situation where most of us do not want to play. We didn’t want to play any more. We just wanted the game to be over.

“But because we were playing for our country we decided to go on.”