From the greatest high to the greatest low, the relationship between the Biya regime and the Confederation of African Football, CAF has cooled off. While Cameroon is currently implementing various specifications for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019 and given guarantees that all infrastructures will be ready before the beginning of the tournament, the Confederation of African Football has made matters more intractable.

Indeed, at the end of the CAF symposium that held on the 18th and 19th of July 2017, at the Palais des Congrès in Skhirat, a suburb of Rabat in Morocco-a nation that blatantly refused to host the 2015 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations for fear of the Ebola virus, the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), announced that the competition shall henceforth be played by 24 teams instead of 16 and above all, the tournament will require 6 stadiums in six different cities beginning this next edition.

Firstly, the 2019 edition had already been awarded to Cameroon and during that process, CAF under Issa Hayatou settled for 16 teams. Then another expensive requirement-that of 6 cities which means the construction of new stadiums including all the sports infrastructures, hotels, communication routes that go with it.

CAF also made public other important decisions which favours Cameroon. The competition will be staged between June and July. Correspondingly, Cameroon therefore benefits from an additional six months. In addition, an inspection mission will be conducted in early September to assess the progress of the work.

By announcing a transition from 16 to 24 teams beginning 2019, CAF has changed the rules of a game that had already started. The Francophone dominated Cameroon Football Federation has raised a finger against CAF.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Intelligence Report