Cameroon’s Football Overseers’ Term to End without Organizing Elections

The second term of the Normalization Committee (NC) that was appointed by world football governing body FIFA, to run the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) will end on Friday 31 August 2018 without organizing elections for the new federation president.

This is revealed by Fecafoot’s new head of communication department, Parfait Siki, saying more time is needed to complete the task of organizing polls for the election of a new football boss.

“Do you think we can hold an election on October 6 with the country’s presidential election being on October 7?.” Parfait Siki rhetorically quizzed Yaoundé-based radio, Magic FM in an interview this week.

The normalization committee made public an initial programme last month which indicated that elections at divisional and regional levels were supposed to have been organised between 23rd June and 31st August 2018.

The NC’s current mandate is short of expiring by two days despite Me Happi’s team concluding most of its tasks. However, the framework for the holding of free and fair elections to usher in a new leadership has yet to be in place.

The first term of the committee ended in February but was extended under unmentioned circumstances for a further six months following an evaluation of the NC’s performance by FIFA.

Decision to appoint a normalization committee by the world football governing entity comes on the back of power struggle at the Cameroonian Federation that started with Tombi Roko Sidiki’s controversial victory in the 2015 polls annulled by the country’s Olympic Bureau.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the verdict, agreeing the process was marred by irregularities prompting FIFA to install in a Normalisation Committee as temporary overseers of Cameroon football.

Failure of Cameroon to put its house in order has fuelled doubts over the Central African nation’s ability to host the 24-team 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and had Ahmed Ahmed raising eyebrows regarding its preparedness.

“I am not sure Cameroon is ready to host the AFCON. There are many things which are still wanting and yet there is little time left,” said Ahmad.

“It would be dangerous to risk African players, especially the professionals plying their trade in Europe and other continents, to play under difficult conditions and facilities.”

CAF are expected to officially pronounce whether or not Cameroon will retain the hosting rights during the CAF Extraordinary General Assembly to be held September 30th in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.