The Chan which starts on Saturday January 16 in Cameroon will be the first international sports competition organized with the public since the appearance of the Covid-19. A few hours before the event, the ...

For Narcisse Mouelle, Cameroonian Minister of Sports, "Chan is a test"

Narcisse Mouelle, Minister of Sports of Cameroon © Pierre René-Worns / RFI

Text by: Ndiasse Sambe Follow |

Hugo Harvester

7 min

The Chan which starts on Saturday January 16 in Cameroon will be the first international sports competition organized with the public since the appearance of the Covid-19.

A few hours before the event, the Minister of Sports of Cameroon, Narcisse Mouelle believes that his country is ready to face the great health and organizational challenge.

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From our special envoys in Yaoundé

RFI: Minister, after more than 40 years, Cameroon is organizing a major football competition with Chan.

What state of mind are you in a few hours of kick-off?

Narcisse Mouelle

: For three weeks, Cameroon will be the center of gravity of the international football sports spectacle.

We are aware of the fact that as a prelude to CAN, we will be organizing the biggest international football sporting event since the start of the coronavirus.

We had already organized similar events like the CAN of 1972, but it is not similar in its dimension.

In 1972, it was an eight-team CAN at two sites, as in the 2016 women's CAN. With Chan, we have 16 teams at four sites, with four large competition fields and a sufficient number of football fields. 'training.

We are going to organize the first major sporting event open to the public since the start of the Covid.

This will be done with a number of health measures such as the gauge placed at 25% of the stadium capacity for the opening match, group matches, and quarterfinals, and 50ù for the semi-finals and the final.

It is an additional challenge to organize Chan in this health context.

You will be scrutinized internationally ...

We have proven ourselves in Cameroon in controlling the pandemic.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health are relatively reassuring (27,336 cases for 451 deaths on January 14, 2021).

Drastic measures have been put in place, in resonance with the barrier measures instructed by the President of the Republic and in accordance with the health protocol decreed by CAF.

These measures include respect for physical distancing in the stadiums, we will resort to the systematic detection of spectators and the wearing of the compulsory mask for entering the stadium.

Special measures are taken so that the spectator can be traced from his entry into the stadium to his installation in the stands.

In Europe, it is the resurgence of the Covid, you have no fear that the tournament will favor the appearance of clusters

This tournament is a test.

This challenge is first taken up from the gateways to our country because there is a systematic check on disembarkation at our international airports.

We ask those who arrive for a PCR test and we repeat the test when they get off the plane.

Regarding the tournament, CAF protocol requires players to test every 72 hours.

It must be recognized that the measures taken for this competition are more reassuring than what is happening in the streets and markets where the wearing of masks is not widespread.

For Chan we are at a higher level than what can be observed in the behavior of citizens.

To come back to the organization of Chan and CAN, is everything ready today in terms of infrastructure?

The President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul Biya, has set up an ambitious program of renovation and rehabilitation of ultramodern sports infrastructures like the Omnisport stadium of Jappoma.

All the competition and training grounds are functional and offer all the guarantees in accordance with CAF specifications.

There are a number of technological activations that have raised the level of these infrastructures.

The organization of Chan and CAN has not been a smooth river.

In particular, there was this postponement of CAN 2019 because CAF considered Cameroon not yet ready.

Were there any difficulties in the emergence of these infrastructures?

Cameroon is a very demanding country on itself which knows how to bring its events to the level where the international community expects it for a country of its size and its dimension.

We emphasize the fact that the organization of an event like Chan or CAN offers a field of immense complexities and singularities because sporting events follow each other and do not resemble each other with all the modifications and mutations that have imposed, both by the context and by the new requirements of CAF.

For example, we went from 16 to 24 teams for CAN, and for Chan from 23 players plus 10 reservists.

We went from a double room for two players to one room per player, not to mention the technological and security dimension in all its ramifications.

Cameroon has had to face all these complexities which have worsened with the international health context.

Many companies which had engaged in the construction, the rehabilitation of these stadiums saw their calendars remodeled in the direction of the extension.

This resulted in delays in the execution of a number of projects.

But I can tell you that when we are going to welcome Chan, all the infrastructure dedicated to Chan is ready.

This is not a petition from a minister who is pulling the cover over his country, it is a finding by CAF in an authentic and objective manner following various inspections.

Cameroon organizes Chan, CAN (January 2022) but also the CAN of women's handball (from June 11 to 20, 2021).

What explains this craze in the organization of major sporting events, when the country was for a very long time without hosting continental sporting events.

Is it a new political will?

Cameroon has always been a great nation of sport in general and football in particular.

Sporting events follow a rule of rotation.

We cannot host a sports competition every year.

We hosted the volleyball CAN (2019), after the women's CAN (2016), so we still host sporting events.

Sport burns in the hearts of Cameroonians.

There is this flame of the passion for sport which participates in the emergence of a sporting awareness driven by an ambition: that of playing sport in Cameroon, a vector of cohesion and social inclusion.

Cameroonians will demonstrate it through this eagerly awaited sports competition.

As much as the announcement of the postponement, due to the constraints linked to the health crisis, was greeted with some disappointment, the reprogramming was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Cameroonian public who unfortunately will have to impose a certain sanitary discipline. .

For Narcisse Mouelle, Cameroonian Minister of Sports, "Chan is a test"

For Narcisse Mouelle, Cameroonian Minister of Sports, "Chan is a test"

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