Yaounde: Cameroon banned skipper Samuel Eto'o for 15 matches on Friday and vice-captain Eyong Enoh for two games after they persuaded team mates not to travel to Algeria for a friendly last month.

"Samuel Eto'o, in his role as captain, incited his team mates to refuse to travel to Algeria," the Cameroon football federation (Fecafoot) said on its website (www.fecafootonline.com).

"[The disciplinary council] therefore decides that [he] is suspended for 15 matches from the men's senior national team."

Huge blow

Cameroon's players went on strike in November, forcing the abandonment of the friendly in Algiers, saying they had not received money promised for their appearance in a four-nation tournament in Morocco the previous weekend.

The federation said 30-year-old Eto'o, four-times African Footballer of the Year, could not explain why the players refused to turn out for the national team after Algeria and the Cameroon sports ministry offered a way out of the crisis.

The loss of Eto'o is a huge blow to Cameroon's hopes of qualifying for the 2013 African Nations Cup and 2014 World Cup.