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It would have been close had Cameroon been bribed at the 2000 Olympics, reveals former international Serge Branco. In the Cameroonian public television documentary, CRTV, the former defender looks back on the Sydney Olympics, where he won a gold medal with Cameroon. In the quarter-finals of the tournament in question, the Cameroonians settled with Brazil, but if it were up to various Asian players, Ronaldinho and his cronies would have qualified for the semi-finals.
Apart from sporting hurdles, Cameroon also had to overcome a major ethical hurdle on the way to the gold medal. The Indomitable Lions survived the group with Kuwait, the United States and the Czech Republic, after which Brazil were surprisingly knocked out in the quarter-finals (1-2). After a 2-1 victory over Chile in the semi-finals, Cameroon beat Spain on penalties in the final. This made the team of Samuel Eto’o and Associates the second African country to win a football gold medal at the Olympics. Nigeria won the top prize in 1996.
However, it could have gone wrong for Cameroon in the quarter-finals, Branco reveals almost 22 years later. “They got six of us together and offered $100,000 per person if we lost 2-1 to Brazil in the quarter-finals. We refused, but… how scary! We had just beaten the Czech Republic and in the mixed zone we were stopped by some Asians. They spoke English and I acted as a translator. They told us that they agents and that they would like to speak to me and five other players at the Novotel in Brisbane the next day. I asked them if they were from Milan or Real Madrid and they said: ‘Don’t worry’.
“We went to a suite on the seventh floor and entered a dark room with two bodyguards in which a man was sitting in a wheelchair with no legs or arms,” Branco continues. “We were blown away, it was like a scene from a movie.” Then came the shocking proposition: “The man did not hide his will. “We invested $6 million and we want you to lose 2-1 to Brazil. We’ll give you $100,000 per person,” he said. They completely surprised us and we didn’t know what to say. We were scared and told them we would be happy to take that money… but only to win,” Branco said.
The follow-up appointment with the Asian side was scheduled for the following day. “We regained our attention and I met the five other people involved. Until then, the Cameroonian government had only given us a hundred dollars. The temptation was great. It was an unthinkable sum at the time, but we We were there to win and shine in the colors of Cameroon. Branco and the five other players decided not to go to the game: “We didn’t go, but we were terrified. We only left the room to go train. We were afraid to meet them in town.”
