How many times has he hoped for this moment? Paul Biya must give, Sunday January 9 at the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé, the kickoff of the 33e edition of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) football. He is about to savor every moment of it. The President of Cameroon has been waiting for this day for so long.
Looking at the trophy, the Head of State will certainly also dream of the evening of the final, scheduled for February 6, where he would see himself handing the golden cup to his “Dear indomitable Lions”, his National team. In his year-end greetings, he urged them “To give the best [d’eux]– even so that this football festival ends in apotheosis “.
But even before the opening match against Burkina Faso, there is already a victory that Paul Biya intends to celebrate. That of having succeeded in organizing in his country the biggest event of African sport. Of course, he had to be patient. But at 88 and after thirty-nine years hanging on to power, the president knows the value of time better than anyone.
No suitable infrastructure
It must still seem far away, this September 21, 2014 when, during a congress in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, the African Football Confederation (CAF) had awarded Cameroon the organization of its flagship competition for the year 2019. Issa Hayatou, powerful Cameroonian president of the African Football Confederation (CAF) since 1988, was at the height of his influence.
“All of Cameroon is mobilized to take up a challenge that the Head of State considers a national cause”, explained Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Kpwatt, former Minister of Sports, in 2018
“Cameroon did not have any infrastructure to international standards”, recalls Charles Mongue-Mouyeme, consultant specializing in Cameroonian football. Paul Biya’s country then had five years to build two sports arenas and adapt the others to the particularly strict specifications required by the competition. The work will take two years before starting. “We had a big delay in ignition, the start of the however colossal building sites was really sluggish”, concedes Charles Mongue-Mouyeme.
The 2016 women’s CAN serves as a trial gallop and accelerates the pace of the upgrading of the Limbe stadium (in the southwestern region of the country) and the complete renovation of the Ahmadou Ahidjo enclosure, in Yaoundé. . But, officially because of bad weather conditions, the work dragged on and the women’s tournament began almost forty days later than expected.
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