Does Colombe Sportive have what it takes to retain their title?

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By Beng Emmanuel Kum

On the day the first phase of the MTN Elite One football championship ended last season, Colombe Sportive of the Dja and Lobo was already on the cusp of clinching the title for the first time in 72 years.  

This season, however, has taken a starkly different narrative for the South Region football club.

The reigning champions finished the first round out of the top three and nine points behind leaders Unisport of the Upper Nkam. According to the classification table, Colombe sits fifth behind, two points shy of fourth place Gazelle FA of Garoua.

If the opening matches of their campaign suggested that they would struggle to secure a historic back-to-back title, their penultimate and final matches of the opening round offered a glimmer of hope that it would take a lot to wrestle the trophy from them.

But Can Colombe Sportive rise to the occasion in the second round of the championship and recover from a difficult start?

“We are ready for the battle”

Colombe Sportive’s start to the 2025/2026 season, quite frankly, was disappointing to many.

Two months to their season opener, Colombe Sportive made their debut in the CAF Champions League.

Although they failed to reach the knockout stages, adding to a long list of Cameroonian clubs who suffered the same fate, Colombe Sportive finished the maiden participation in Africa’s Premier club competition unbeaten.

They made history by advancing to the second preliminary round of the inter-club competition after edging ASC Jaraaf of Senegal in the first round 1-0 on aggregate.

But they ran out of luck in the second round and were knocked out by a more experienced rival MC Alger on the away goal rule following a 1-1 draw in the first leg played in Yaounde.

Their performance in the CAF Champions League made many believe that their fellow Elite One rivals never truly looked on the end of an upset this season. 

This assertion quickly evaporated when Colombe Sportive were held to a goalless stalemate against record league winners Coton Sport of Garoua in a pulsating clash on matchday one. 

But it was a 2-1 defeat against Gazelle FA that showed they can’t rest on last season’s laurels.

“We are not surprised with the results. The head coach said at the start of the season that we had not reached the peak of preparations,” the club’s Team Press Officer, TPO, Willy Arnold Nyatte told The Guardian Post Sports.

Despite a debacle start to the season, Colombe bounced back briefly when they narrowly edged Dynamo of Douala 1-0 with Conrad Njuma scoring the solitary goal on 53 minutes.

But the celebrations of a first win of the season were short-lived as the club suffered a dip in form again. They lost 1-0 to AS Fortuna and drew 2-2 against Aigle of the Moungo.

They began improving with a win at Panthere Sportive of Nde and three successive draws against Stade Renard of Melong, Unisport of Bafang and Canon Sportif of Yaounde.

A convincing 4-1 win against Victoria United FC ended a run of three-matches before a win but they succumbed to 1-0 Aigle Royal of the Menoua. That was their last defeat at the first phase of the championship.

For the first time this season, Colombe Sportive recorded successive wins scoring seven times. They defeated PWD of Bamenda 3-1 and picked up a deserved 4-0 win at Fauve Azur of Yaounde.

“A fifth place was necessary to keep hope because the return phase will be very decisive. We are proud of the team who gave everything and made the fans keep dreaming. I think that the second phase will be crucial. (…) “We have players who will be returning from injuries,” Nyatte said.  

He added that: “We are suffering today because we are the defending champions. Everyone wants to beat us. One of the particularities this season is that we performed well against top place clubs but complicated with the bottom place teams”.

According to the Colombe TPO, “Our objective was to reach the 20 points gap this season. That helps us to remain in the title race and in touch with leaders”.

Despite a topsy-turvy season, Nyatte believes that Colombe is still in the title race.

“We have not said our last word. The second phase will be difficult but we are confident in our technical staff and our players. We are nine points behind the leaders with 13 matches to play. These matches will be finals to us and we are ready for the battle”.

Nyatte stated categorically that: “We have not said our last word. We are coming out as a completely different team in the second round”.

The curse that hunts Elite One winner

History has not been kind to defending champions of the MTN Elite championship over the years.

Before Coton Sport of Garoua lifted back-to-back trophies between 2021-2023, no other Cameroonian club had successfully defended their titles in the last five years.

For first time winners, the task is even more daunting. Clubs like Eding Sport of the Lekie, PWD of Bamenda and Victoria United, in that order, the most recent cases, never truly came close to repeating the feat.

“We are well aware of the curse. We have encountered enormous difficulties. We know where we are coming from, we know where we are going,” Nyatte said.

“I can assure you that we are confident. We are certain that Richard Towa and his boys will make us dream again like was the case a few months ago,” Nyatte added.

Colombe’s record in the first phase may not be enough to suggest that they can break the jinx. In 13 matches, they have won just five matches. Their record also includes three defeats and five draws. 

Last season, Colombe scored an impressive 38 goals, conceded 15 times and kept 16 clean sheets. They also had 19 wins and three defeats, the same number that they have already conceded this season and eight draws. 

Colombe will need to do better if they intend to take the trophy to the South Region again. 

Defending a title without head coach

On March 23, 2026, the head coach of Colombe Sportive, Richard Towa, was handed six months ban by the Disciplinary and Homologation Committee of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT).

The sanction was made in relation to the case between Panthere Sportive and Colombe Sportive of the Dja and Lobo regarding the Super Cup final.

It should be recalled that the Super Cup final in February was prematurely ended after Colombe Sportive walked off.

Since then, Towa, who led Colombe to their maiden league success last season, has not been on the bench.

Without Towa, winner of the Best Men’s Coach Award at the 2025 Cameroon Ballon d’Or ceremony, Colombe doesn’t seem to have suffered enormously.

Nyatte said collaboration with other members of the technical staff has been key.

“It is not a major concern for us at Colombe. His assistants are doing a remarkable job. It is a motivation for us that without our head coach we can obtain the best results,”

“Colombe intends to retain the trophy. We know we had a tough start to the season but we are focused on our goals. We finished the first phase well and we do not have any doubts that we will continue to obtain results in the second phase,” Nyatte said.

In Summary, a fifth-place finish, a nine points gap to close, 13 decisive matches to play and a coach that has been suspended. But optimism within the club remains at an all-time high.

It will not be long before the club’s new found conviction is put to the test with Colombe to face three direct title contenders.

They begin the second phase against Coton Sport and then take on Gazelle FA before another against Stade Renard of Melong.

“These are our direct competitors and it will be necessary to have a bright start in the second phase,” Nyatte said.

This story was first published on The Guardian Post Sports

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