Jingoism was at its peak in the nation that was only appearing in the World Cup for the second time. The Indomitable Lions, as the Cameroon team are known, had become the first African side to reach the quarter-finals before losing to England in Naples in the unlikeliest of manners. The general consensus in Cameroon and the rest of Africa was that the Mexican referee, Edgardo Codesal, favoured the English. The leading government daily, Cameroon Tribune, topped its report of the game “Cameroon defeated 3-0 by England in a game headlined by VAR decisions”, and the piece focused on all the refereeing controversies. Just for context of how the women’s game is treated, it is worth noting that the country’s leading English-language newspaper, The Guardian Post, ignored Cameroon’s elimination completely and did not mention a word about it in Monday’s publication.

Source: The Guardian June 24, 2019 17:00 UTC