PARIS – The French league are to organise a match in memory of late Cameroon international midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe on Armistice Day on November 11. The 28-year-old collapsed and subsequently died of a rare heart problem during the Confederations Cup semi-final with Colombia in Lyon last month. French League president Frederic Thiriez said the funds would go to his family and to a sports centre he was funding in Cameroon.
« I have decided to organise a match between the Cameroon national side and a team made up of his former team-mates at Lens, Lyon and, I hope, Manchester City, » said Thiriez, who made the announcement alongside Mohamed Iya, president of the Cameroon Football Federation.
Thiriez added the match would either take place at the Parc des Princes in Paris, Lyon or in Lens.
The team made up of Foe’s former team-mates will be coached by French national coach Jacques Santini, who was the two-time World Cup finals veteran manager at Lyon, and perhaps by Kevin Keegan, who was his handler at Manchester City where he was on loan.
All the takings from the match (televison rights, tickets, sponsors and donations) will go to his family – he was a married father of three – and the Marc-Vivien Foe foundation which is yet to be created