BEVERLY HILL, January 16, (THEWILL) – The interim President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Constant Omari, Friday, led a delegation of football officials that included FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, to an audience with Paul Biya, the President of Cameroon.
For this meeting of presidents which took place at the Unity Palace in Yaounde, the CAF delegation also included African football legend and CAF adviser from Cameroon, Samuel Eto’o Fils.
It was held a day before the Central African country hosts the Total African Nations Championship (CHAN), Cameroon 2020, a responsibility they took up after original hosts, Ethiopia, declined to host the competition.
The visit is Infantino’s first to Cameroon and together with Omari and Eto’o Fils, he held fruitful talks with Biya about the game of football and the stages of development that it has evolved through in the very strong footballing country that Cameroon is on the continent.
About these discussions, Biya commented: “Delighted to meet today with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on the eve of the opening of the 2020 Africa Nations Championship.
“We discussed the development of football in Cameroon in particular and in the world at large.”
The FIFA President is in Cameroon to attend the opening ceremony and curtain-raiser match between the hosts and Zimbabwe, which, according to the design of the CHAN tournament, will exclusively feature home-based players of participating countries.
In all, sixteen nations are in contention for this year’s title and have been drawn into four groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group will progress to the knock-out stage of the competition and have the opportunity to take a shot at claiming the trophy.
Matches will be played in the Cameroonian host cities of Yaounde and Limbe while Douala will host two groups at Japoma Stadium and Stade de la Reunification.
The tournament kicks off this Saturday, January 16 and will end on Sunday, February 7.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
