Sunday, March 19, 2017

MTN Resumes Sponsorship Of Cameroon Champions League

Yaoundé—The local subsidiary of South Africa mobile telecom firm, MTN will resume sponsorship of the Cameroon soccer league one and two championships five years after it backed out allegedly due to poor relations with the country’s football authorities.

Cameroon Elite two club, Bang Bullet FC of Nkambe 
The telecom giant’s Cameroon CEO, Philisiwe Sibiya made the disclosure after an audience the Minister, Secretary General at the Presidency of Cameroon, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh granted her on Friday March 17.

The MTN Cameroon CEO told the press that she discussed the modalities of the sponsorship with the chief scribe of the Cameroon state house as the mobile telecommunications network firm is about to sign a contract with the Professional Football League of Cameroon (LFPC) to sponsor local soccer for the next three years.

“We will be sponsoring the premier leagues one and two. We are hoping that it is going to go beyond just three years. As Africans we all share the passion of football,” Philisiwe Sibiya said.

The firm sponsored Cameroon’s premier league from 2002 but backed out a decade later and since then, the national divisions one and two championships have been limping due to lack of sponsorship.

The launching of the 2016/2017 football season in the country for instance witnessed repeated postponements largely due to a chronic logistics and financial deficiency.

The telecom firm had been investing in soccer in the country financially and infrastructural wise. It had helped in promoting sports in Cameroon, especially football through a total financial disbursement of FCFA 7 billion for the organization of the league one and two championships from 2002-2012; about FCFA 700 million annually.

MTN also rehabilitated two major stadia in the country’s Mbouda and Guider stadia in the West and North regions respectively.

Though the telecom giant’s new sponsorship is yet to be signed, soccer promoters in the five times African football champions see the resumption of sponsorship by the telecom firm a sigh of relief.

Kengong Johnson Bang, president of Bang Bullet FC, a local league two side in the country said he was happy with the announcement.

By Ndi Eugene  Ndi