From My Diary: The changing tides in Cameroon football

It is forty-two years today since Cameroon hosted the African Nations cup played on the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaounde. Indeed we hosted the games by the standards of the times and lost the trophy anyway.

Surprisingly, the grief that followed our loss of the trophy to the Red Devils of Congo Brazzaville, succeeded so well to eclipse the joy of hosting such a continental tournament.

With only the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaounde and the Douala re-unification stadium being the only sports edifices, we could boast of at the time, our traditional gift of hospitality played the trick for us. While some Cameroonians smashed and destroyed their radio sets out of anger that the Indomitable Lions had been dominated, others with weak spirits collapsed and were rushed to hospitals.

One thing that was evident in all this was that Cameroonians can stake their lives for football, perhaps because politics has been divisive and so our only consolation and sense of unity must lie on our continuous victories in football.

Since that historic defeat, or even humiliation forty-two years today, Cameroonians have remained so attached to the Lions, that no one, not even the best on the pitch should at any time attempt to toy with the reputation of Cameroon as a football nation.

But some where along the line, within these forty-two years, that reputation has ebbed and flowed like the tides of a roaring ocean. Cameroon football rose to a level in the 1990’s that stunned the world. The mere inclusion of Cameroon in any Africa continental tournament, or even at the level of the World Cup, kept most countries uneasy.

I remember after Italy 1990, England had to invite Cameroon for a friendly at Wembley stadium. I guess it was not only to see if really Cameroon’s performance, especially Milla’s display of talents was indeed of natural source. I want to believe they wanted to discover the mystery behind Cameroon’s rise to fame, when England as the country that discovered football is yet to make real impact in football for quite some time now.

Credit for this, in the judgment of those who are prepared to face the truth, goes to the Millas, the Nkonos, the Tataws, the Biyicks, the Mbomas, and of course the list is tiring.

The last two years have been years of ebbing football fortunes for Cameroon. The era of the Songs, the Eto’os seemed catastrophic. On the African continental platform, we were found wanting. On the world scene it was shameful, shameful to the extent that even the blind could see where all went wrong until the tides changed again of late, looking as if in our favour.

The first two qualifier matches for next year’s African Nations cup have raised hopes for Cameroonians. But what will raise greater hopes is the recent breaking news that Cameroon has been chosen among four other African bidders for the African Nations Cup hosting in 2019.

Others who were in the bid included Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Algeria and Zambia. Just as I have already told the story of what happened in 1972, the opportunity has fallen once more into our hands. This comes forty-two years after.

This is time enough to prepare. Let no one put any blame on time factor for our failure to make any headway. Let the coach feel relaxed for the task ahead, because Cameroonians expect much from him in rebuilding our football image.

Apart from the football challenge, lie the infrastructural demands which have been our major obstacle and made us a laughing stock.