Cameroon Squad Fly to Brazil After World Cup Bonus Row

The Cameroon World Cup squad have finally arrived in Brazil after initially refusing to board a flight to the tournament because of a dispute over match bonuses.

The squad, including former Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o, had refused to leave their hotel to catch a flight to South America on Sunday morning.

But eventually agreed a financial package with the nation's football federation after an emergency meeting.

Team coach Volker Finke had said players were complaining that the £61,000 they were due to be paid for appearing in the World Cup was not enough.

The drama unfolded after the team stayed behind in its hotel, with reporters camped outside awaiting further information. A charter plane had been scheduled to leave Yaounde at 9.00 GMT for Brazil, where they are due to play Mexico in their opening game on Friday.

Cameroon's players had previously threatened to go on strike as the World Cup bonuses they have been offered were not as high as they had expected, but suspended the strike to play in a friendly match against Germany last Sunday, l'Equipe reported.

They drew 2-2 with Germany and then beat Moldova 1-0 on Saturday, after which tensions in the squad are believed to have heightened, reports the paper.

Cameroon are in group A, and will also play Brazil and Croatia.

Coach Volker Finke's final 23-man squad for the tournament contains stars including Samuel Eto'o, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Barcelona's Alex Song.

There were also disputes over payments before the 1994 and 2002 World Cups. In both tournaments Cameroon failed to qualify past the group stage.

In the 1990 World Cup in Italy the Indomitable Lions reached the quarter-finals where they were narrowly defeated by England.