On December 20, Cameroon welcomed its savior. Three weeks before the start of the 33rd African Cup of Nations (CAN, January 9-February 6) and while persistent rumors reported a potential postponement of the competition, Patrice Motsepe is visiting the host country, his President Paul Biya and the new Cameroonian football boss, Samuel Eto’o. The president of the African Football Confederation (CAF) is reassuring: “We are very clear about our commitment to make CAN a success.”
Motsepe announces that he will be present for the opening match between Cameroon and Burkina Faso, which will be held on Sunday January 9 at the Olembé stadium, in Yaoundé, and will launch the party that African football has been waiting for since the last one. CAN edition (in Egypt in summer 2019). Arrived in Cameroon during the week, Lassana Camara, Mauritanian journalist influential on the African continent, describes however suspicious locals: “They are waiting for the start of the match to really tell themselves that the CAN is taking place in Cameroon. Because until then, Cameroonians spoke of this competition as a curse.”
Dress rehearsals for the ensemble movements have started at Olembe stadium.# cantotalenergies2021 pic.twitter.com/GCATCT7D4T
– Cameroon Tribune (@CamerounTribune) January 5, 2022
It must be said that the organization of this CAN was not easy for CAF and Cameroon. So the last hours will be stressful for this gigantic country of African football, five times winner of the competition (only Egypt does better with seven successes). There remains the irrational fear of an impromptu event which would once again postpone the kick-off of the CAN, the success of which has been called into question many times in recent years.
When, on September 21, 2014, CAF awarded the 2019 Africa Cup to Cameroon, the news appeared as a blessing. “The Cameroonian people love football but have only hosted CAN once, in 1972”, underlines Lassana Camara. The country is setting in motion to be able to host the largest sports competition on the continent. But the work takes more than two years to start.
Four years later, Cameroonians are disappointed: in November 2018, CAF withdraws the competition from the country, seven months from its kickoff. The transition from 16 to 24 teams, decided in July 2017 by the body that directs African football, does not help Cameroon, where construction and renovation of stadiums are considerably behind schedule. “I took part in the inspection visit in August 2018 and at stadium level, they could never have been ready in a few months”, supports a former senior leader of the presidency Ahmad Ahmad at CAF (2017-2021)
Egypt inherits the baby and the competition is a success in the summer of 2019. CAF succeeded in its bet while the management of CAN 2015, transferred in the last weeks to Equatorial Guinea instead of Morocco, had been a bitter failure. But suspicions are starting to emerge: Ahmad Ahmad is suspected of wanting to sabotage Cameroon. “On the contrary, I rubbed shoulders with him and he really wanted to organize this CAN in Cameroon. But in 2019, it was obvious that it was not possible”, assures the ex-member of CAF to franceinfo: sport.
Proof of CAF’s voluntarism: the 2021 edition is entrusted to Cameroon. The country has two years to prepare. But after the infrastructure problems, Fifa got involved in October 2019. The first edition of the new version of the Club World Cup imagined by the body of world football falls in June 2021, at same time as CAN. The African Cup is embarrassing. CAF then decides in January 2020 to bring the competition forward by six months, to January 2021, on the pretext of weather conditions unsuitable for playing football in Cameroon in the summer.
“These climatic reasons were a pretext. The real reason for this announcement to advance the competition is that Fifa had put the pressure not to have the CAN and the Club World Cup take place at the same time “, explains the ex-member of CAF. The decision does not please the European clubs, far from being satisfied to learn that their players will once again be requisitioned in the middle of the season. But whatever, the CAN must take place in January 2021.
Six months later, the Covid-19 pandemic pushes CAF to a new drastic decision: to postpone the CAN for one year, in January 2022. This period allows Cameroon to test itself, during the African Nations Championship ( CHAN, an CAN in which only players playing in their country can participate, excluding those who play in Europe) which takes place in January 2021, and won by Morocco. Despite the doubts that persist about Cameroon’s infrastructure, the competition offers a sigh of relief to CAF.
“CHAN reassured everyone even if there were some problems such as invasions of the field during three matches which particularly annoyed the instance”, remembers Ahmad Ahmad’s relative. It must be said that CAF plays its credibility on the organization of the CAN. “African football is up against the wall. Our showcase is CAN and it has to be a successful party to show the whole world that we know how to organize competitions”, insists Lassana Camara.
CAF does not fail to put pressure on Cameroon regarding the last details to be settled. In November, the body sends a letter to Narcisse Mouelle, Cameroonian Minister of Sports and president of the local organizing committee of the CAN, evoking “serious concerns about the organization of the tournament” and by threatening a relocation of the opening match which is to take place in the Olembé stadium, not yet fully developed.
In the meantime, Patrice Motsepe, president of CAF since March, came to Yaoundé to reassure everyone in African football: “CAF has never considered withdrawing the CAN in Cameroon.” Rumors of a postponement or even of a relocation are swelling, however. Especially when Abdel Moneim Hussein, former CAF, explains in early December on Egyptian television that Cameroon is not ready to host CAN and that the competition could finally be played in Qatar.
A few days later, the ECA (European Association of Clubs) participated in the malaise by demanding a health protocol, failing which the clubs of the Old Continent would refuse to release their players for the CAN. The Cameroonian organizers draw quickly and Motsepe therefore makes this reassuring visit to Yaoundé on December 20. “Two weeks away from a competition like this, African football could not afford to postpone it, it would have been suicidal”, says Lassana Camara.
In Cameroon, we soon see the end of the tunnel of an African Cup perceived as a real “way of the cross for eight years”, according to the Mauritanian journalist. But the kickoff of the competition on Sunday does not mean the end of the problems for Cameroon. Security threats weigh on the competition, even if Lassana Camara believes that the host country “played his score from this point of view”, having observed for himself the systems put in place in the field.
After the party, it is especially on the legacy of the competition that Cameroon will have to rack their brains. “It is obvious that this will be a burden for Cameroon, I am convinced of it. As in Equatorial Guinea, as in Gabon, there is a strong risk that these infrastructures will very quickly be abandoned”, supports the former senior manager of CAF. The examples of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have something to make Cameroonian organizers pessimistic.
A few days before the opening of the CAN, the Cameroonian authorities must face several security challenges ⬇️https: //t.co/M8vDi2OOPS
– francetvsport (@francetvsport) January 4, 2022
“We must not do like these two countries where the stadiums have turned into fields of potatoes. There must be infrastructures around the stadiums, to have clubs play there. This is not the case at the stadium Olembé and at the Japoma stadium. After the CAN, I fear that these speakers will fall into anonymity because nothing has been done around “, breathes Lassana Camara. In the meantime, Cameroon will be able to enjoy this beautiful football festival that is the CAN, for a month. A great reward after eight years of uncertainties.