The International Cycling Union has designated the president of the Ivorian Cycling federation and president of the African Cycling Union, Allah Kouame to oversee the normalisation process at the Cameroon Cycling Federation.
Contrary to some media reports that the normalisation process has to be completed before the holding of the next Cycling Tour of Cameroon, there is no time frame for Kouame to carry out the job and the restoring order in FECACYCLISME is not a condition for the holding of the race.
"There is no way the normalisation process can be completed before the tour of Cameroon slated for March 9 to 18," said the Secretary General of the federation, Bruno Elomo. "The International Cycling Union has recommended some changes on our statutes. We are presently working on them and will have to report back to the ICU and convene a general assembly to adopt the revised statutes before convening new elections, which is going to take time," added.
The proposed amendments are related to the delays in convening a general assembly. ICU recommended the delay to be extended from 15 days to between 45 and 60 days. However, the federation has opted to extend it to 45 days before the day of the meeting. The International Cycling Union also made recommendations for clauses on the independence of the federation to be prescribed in the status to avoid government interference.
Relations between Cameroon and ICU got sour since the election that brought Moustapha Dogo to power following a complaint from the former president, François Njele. Adoum Garoua calmed down tensions by appointing François Njelle as director of projects, in charge of the Grand Prix Chantal Biya and the Lamissa Bongo tour, pending the final resolution of conflict in that federation.
Meanwhile, the Cameroon Cycling federation has scheduled to launch the new season on February 10th and 11th probably with a cycling race between Ebolowa and Kyo-Ossi with a criterium around the major alleys of the South Regional capital. In a related story, the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Adoum Garoua, within the framework of the appointment of coaches in the different sports federations, appointed coaches at the regional level in the cycling federation but not at the national level.
Quizzed on what could be the reason for this omission, the Secretary General of the cycling federation said the federation had proposed the maintenance of Frenchman, Jean Philippe Duraka but the ministry is not comfortable with the proposal as they consider the terms of his contract expensive and would therefore want to revise the contract before making a pronouncement. He refuted allegations that the omission was due to the imbroglio currently reigning at the federation.