Puma to Dress Cameroon Olympic Team

This follows tripartite negotiations involving officials from MINSEP, CNOSC and Puma on Wednesday.

The saga over who to clad the Cameroon Olympic Team has come to a happy end as the sports equipment company, Puma and the National Olympic and Sports Committee reached an agreement yesterday after two days of negotiations. Differences erupted when officials of the National Olympic and Sports Committee asked for a financial package to accompany the supply of equipment as is the case with other delegations, a request which Puma turned down proposing to offer only free equipment as they did in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Though both the Secretary General of the Olympic Committee, Abolo Biwole and the Puma director of marketing, Regis Menoux were unwilling to disclose the terms of this agreement, they both said the conditions this time will be different from that of 2008 and that after the London Olympics, Puma and the Olympic Committee will meet again to chart the road map for future cooperation. For London Olympics, Puma will entirely dress the Cameroon Olympic Team made up of 100 people for free.

Abolo Biwole refuted allegations that they has asked for money and that the agreement with Puma does not in any way affect the equipment acquired from another manufacturer since the equipment was paid for. He also disclaimed rumours that their change of mind was due to pressure from very high quarters of the country. Regis Menoux reassured Cameroonians that the equipment will be supplied in time before the beginning of the Games on July 27th. He said Cameroon was an important country in Puma's commercial strategy and that they look forward to dressing more Cameroonian athletes now still in training centres. Negotiations resumed at the behest of the Minister of Sports and Physical Education who chaired the negotiations on the first day in his cabinet before they were finalised yesterday at the National Olympic and Sports Committee.