By Martin Etonge BBC Sport, Yaounde

Raymond Kalla has been dropped from the the latest Cameroon squad

Cameroon coach, Winfried Schafer, has been forced to cut his squad from 28 to 20 players for the international friendly against Germany on 17 November.

The ministry of sport, who are the administrative managers of the team, objected to Schafer's original list arguing that that there were too many players for a friendly match.

The ministry also said that Raymond Kalla, who retired in November 2002, had no place in the team.

The German coach has now finally given in to the Cameroon football authorities after a 48 hour stand off and cut the squad to 20 players.

Kalla, who was originally named as one of four reserve players, has been left out of the squad totally.

The Indomitable Lions coach said that Kalla refused to play but there also doubts over the defenders fitness.

Franck Ongfiang of Italian side Martina Seranca has taken Kalla's place in the reserve list.

The coach has also been forced to include Pierre Boya from Partizan Belgrade in the squad in place of Herve Tum, who is now on the reserve list because of injury.

Schafer, however, was allowed to keep Alexandre Song Bilong, who is the nephew of skipper Rigobert Song and plays for the French first division Bastia, in the squad.

There was opposition to 17-year-old Bilong's inclusion after he had ignored an earlier call to play for the under-20 national team.

The dispute and changes have arisen because in Cameroon although the players are selected by the coach it is his employers, the ministry of sport, who announce the squad to the public.

This can sometimes lead to disagreements and it is often the coach who gets overruled by the ministry.

The most famous example of this is was Roger Milla, who the ministry rather than the coach chose to play at the 1990 and 1994 World Cup finals.

The stand-off with the ministry is just the latest problem that Schafer has faced in recent times.

The fans and the media have been calling for his resignation and there have also been denials of a rift between the coach and some of his players.

Squad:

Goalkeepers:
Hamidou Souleymanou (Denizlispor, Turkey), Idriss Kameni (Espanyol, Spain)

Defenders:
Rigobert Song (Galatasaray, Turkey), Lucien Mettomo (Kaiserslautern, Germany), Bill Tchato (Kaiserslautern, Germany), Jean Jo�l Perrier Doumbe (Rennes, France), Timoth�e Atouba (Tottenham, England), Ateba Bilayi (PSG, France) Alexandre Song bilong (SC Bastia, France), Vital Mevengue (Coton Sport, Cameroon),

Midfielders:
Geremi Njitap (Chelsea, England), Modeste Mbami (PSG, France), Eric Djemba Djemba (Manchester United, England), Jean Makoun (Lille, France)

Strikers:
Pierre Boya (Partizan Belgrade, Yugoslavia) Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Spain), Joseph D�sir� Job (Middlesbrough, England), Guy Feutchine (Paok Salonika, Greece), Pius Ndiefi (Al Ittihad, Qatar), Mohamadou Idrissou (Hannover 96, Germany)