The government of Japan has said it is interested in helping solve Cameroon’s football infrastructure crisis by offering to renovate new stadiums. « We’ve solicited the council of Oita to construct us one or two football fields, » disclosed Iya Mohamed, head of the Cameroon FA Fecafoot, in a press briefing in Yaounde.
Mohamed said that the federation was now hoping that the Japanese council would quickly release the funds.
During the 2002 World Cup, the Cameroon Special Fund for Council Management, Feicom, sent an eleven-man delegation to Japan to lobby for assistance from the Japanese government.
The Japanese government has previously offered funds to Cameroon to help improve education in the country.
Japan spent FCFA billions building some 50 modern schools, comprising 616 classrooms fully equipped in three provinces – Littorial, Centre and South.
These schools were freely handed over to the Cameroonian government.
Timely aid
Since the World Cup, the Japanese government has been strengthening its relations with Cameroon, especially in sports and culture.
While the world’s greatest sporting event was rocking in Asia, the Japanese Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon, organised a series of essay competitions on sports and culture for youths aged under 23 years, and numerous handsome prizes were given to the winners.
Japanese became interested in Cameroonian soccer when former Lions skipper Stephen Etta Tataw ended his soccer career there.
Striker Patrick Mboma later joined the J-League and enthralled Japanese fans with his talent.
The Japanese aid comes at a particularly timely moment as inadequate infrastructure is being attributed as the main cause of poor levels of local talent.
