Cameroon, China sign 273 billion CFA convention to construct 10 modern stadiums
Posted by africanpress on May 10, 2008
Publisher: Korir, africanpress@getmail.no
<Story filed by Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE, May 9 – Cameroon soccer fans have heeved a deep sigh of relief after the government has signed a 10-year 273-billion CFA francs convention with China for the Asian nation to construct 10 modern stadiums in the country’s ten provinces.
Speaking at the convention signing ceremony, Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni hailed cooperation ties between the two countries and expressed the hope that the project will boost the country’s sports performance and contribute in fighting youth unemployment.
”Sports is a vital instrument which fosters integration, peaceful co-existence and national concorde,” he said, adding that results recorded so far by sports men and women have significantly projected and enhanced the country’s image on the international scene.
“This programme, with a 10-year life span, will greatly mobilise local and international man power for its implementation and equally contribute in efforts to fight against youth unemployment.”
He urged the Chinese firm which will carry out the construction – the China Machinery Equipment Export and Import Enterprise – to work in synergy with Cameroonian experts and technicians in order to facilitate the transfer of technology.
For his part, Sports minister Augustin Edjoa urged Cameroon sports men and women to make maximum use of the coming facilities to better their performance.
“Sports, particularly football, is Cameroon’s most dependable ambassador,” he said. “Regrettably,” he added, “the lack of veritable infrastructure has played a negative impact on our sports results in recent years. We hope that with the advent of these new infrastructure our results will be better, and we can start warming up to host major international competitions.”
According to the terms of the contract, the Chinese firm will build a 60,000-capacity stadium at Olembe on the north-eastern outskirts of Yaounde as well as three other 20,000-30,000 capacity stadiums in Douala, Bafoussam and Limbe in 2008-2011.
In the second phase, it will construct 15,000-20,000 capacity playing grounds in the other six provincial headquarters, including Bamenda, Bertoua, Ebolowa, Ngaoundere, Maroua and Garoua.
The news came as a pleasant surprise to millions of Cameroon soccer fans who have over the years been yearning for the construction of modern stadiums befitting the Central African country’s international reputation.
Over the last three decades, Cameroon has earned the envious and fearsome reputation of being one of Africa’s most powerful soccer houses thanks to the exploits of its national squad and the mesmerizing skills of Barcelona’s striker Samuel Eto’o and the African player of the 20th century, Roger Milla.
Infact, the country is four-times winner of the Nations Cup, has been to the World Cup five times, becoming the first ever continental team to reach the quarter-finals in Italy in 1990, and won the football golden glory at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
But this impressive and glorious past contrasts sharply with the very apalling and rapidly deteriorating state of its football facilities. ”It is regrettable that football has brought so much honour and glory to our nation, yet we’ve done nothing to promote the game,” living soccer legend and ambassador Roger Milla told reporters, summing up the general mood.
“The fact is that our stadiums are in a pitiable, catastrophic and advanced state of decay. It will be no exaggeration to say that we don’t even have a stadium that meets strict international standards, a shameful and embarrassing situation for a nation with such a record in the game.”
In 1972 the country constructed the Reunification stadium in the main economic centre Douala and the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in the capital, Yaounde, to host the African Nations Cup.
Today, 36 years later, the Reunification stadium has not been renovated. The pitch is transformed into a muddy tract when it rains and a dust bowl in the dry season, with several parts of the roof rotting away.
A similar picture could be painted of the main playing ground, the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium until 2006 when a Japanese firm carried out some renovation works. Then, it lacked toilette facilities, developed cracks at several points, spectators were forced to sit on bare concrete ground, while tufts of grass competed for space with potholes on the playing field proper, hindering smooth circulation of the ball.
Infact, a vising FIFA inspection team came close to imposing a ban on the stadium for that year’s World Cup qualifier games. Somehow it survived. This catastrophic state of playgrounds is probably the main reason why Cameroon has been reluctant to bid to host the Nations Cup again.
Even the country’s clubs with rich traditions like Canon and Tonnerre of Yaounde and Union in Douala which dominated the African football scene in the 1970s and 1980s do not have training grounds of acceptable standards.
They still play the MTN elite club competition at the very sandy, undulating Military stadium – of sad memory to Ghana’s Hearts of Oaks, a state which casts a scar on the capital city’s, and indeed the nation’s conscience.(END)
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