Yaoundé—President
Paul Biya last Friday approved the mascot, anthem and logo of the 2016 Women’s
African Football Cup of Nations to be staged in Yaounde and Limbe from November
19 to December 3.
The unveiling of the mascot comes barely a week
after a CAF inspection team visited the country and declared it ready to host
the tournament.
The mascot, a lioness named Lili-the first two
syllabuses of the lion and lioness; the male and female national soccer teams
of the country is clothed with the three colours of the Cameroon flag; Green,
Red and Yellow—holding on its right hand the official match ball of the
tournament by CAF.
On its T-shirt is inscribed, “CAF Women’s African
Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2016,” same writing on the logo which is the African
map with a star on the position of Cameroon.
The anthem; a bilingual song recorded in a French
studio in Paris has as lead singers renowned Afropop singers; Charlotte Dipanda
and Richard Kings, featuring some national and international stars.
It celebrates brotherhood amongst the continent’s
people through the championship as well as women and their achievements. It
also expresses the country’s gratitude to CAF and FIFA for granting it the
rights to host its first Women AFCON (and the second AFCON, after the Men AFCON
in 1972) ever organized by the country.
On Thursday, the Confederation of African Football
(CAF) announced that it has banned Equatorial Guinea from participating in the
tournament for fielding a player whose age differed from a previous she
declared in 2014.
The two-time African champions fielded
Brazilian-born midfielder Camila Nobre do Carmo Oliviera whose date of birth is
10/06/1988 but was registered as Camila Maria Nobre Carmo with date of birth as
07/10/1994 at the 2014 edition of the tournament in Namibia. Mali was brought
in to replace the country.
Current holders Nigeria and hosts Cameroon will thus
be joined by Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Zimbabwe and South Africa at the
tournament.
By Ndi Eugene Ndi
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