Understanding the Causes and Manifestations of Conflicts in the Management of Football in Cameroon

This research examined the causes and manifestations of conflicts in the management of football in Cameroon from the perspectives of stakeholders. The study was guided by two objectives and two hypotheses. A mixed sequential nested research design was employed in this study, utilising both quantitative questionnaires and qualitative document analyses to collect opinions from football stakeholders. The stakeholders were selected using the purposive sampling technique. The sample of this study comprises 50 officials of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT), 50 club presidents, 200 coaches and players, and 315 fans/media officials, both male and female, from different regions of Cameroon, totalling 615 stakeholders. The questionnaire was pilot tested on 25 stakeholders and a reliability coefficient of 0.735 established. Ethical consideration was ensured through ethical clearance, research authorisation and informed consent. Data was analysed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations) and inferential (kruskal-wallis H test, pairwise post hoc test and one sample t-test) statistics. The qualitative data was analysed using the thematic narration. The findings revealed 76% approval as against 24% on the possible causes of conflict in football management. In terms of the hypothesis, there was a statistically significant difference in the views of stakeholders (H = 46.98, P<0.001) with regards to the causes of conflict in football management thereby rejecting the null hypothesis. The findings for objective two revealed that 80% of stakeholders supported the listed manifestations of conflicts in football management as against 20%. The null hypothesis was also rejected as there was a statistically significant difference (H = 21.52, P <0.001.) in the views of stakeholders with regards to the manifestations of conflict in football management in Cameroon. These quantitative findings were corroborated by the qualitative views from the stakeholders. The researcher therefore recommended the need for FECAFOOT to prioritise the establishment of transparent financial management practices and robust governance structures to address the primary drivers of conflict identified by stakeholders.