The 2019 league one and two championships in Cameroon will be played in a format of 2 pools each in the upcoming season.
The league management body(LFPC) adopted these “desperate measures” in desperate times as the institution struggles to get out a pit it’s officials dug and jumped into with the league.
Addressing the press just after Friday’s the board meeting in Yaounde,the president of LFPC(Cameroon professional Football League),General Pierre Semengue made some important submissions amongst which was the board’s decision to have the 18 clubs league one championship split to two groups of 9 clubs each, with team’s expected to face each other on a home and away bases.The best four teams in each pool will qualify for the playoffs which will continue till a champion is determined.
While the 15 clubs second tier competition will have two pools of 8 and 7 clubs for pool A and B respectively with the same number of four teams to enter the playoffs as the case in the league one championship.
Officials of the league’s management body say the above decision has been made because of the insufficient time for the body to organize the previous format of the championship given that CAF had earlier instructed all countries under the body to organize their local championships for 2019 in such a way that the championships end in May 2019 just before the 2019 AFCON in Egypt.
The kick off date set by LFPC for the leagues in November last year was not respected due to preconditions that had to be met such as the holding of the board meeting to adopt the conditions of the competition but all seems to gearing up for the January 26 and 30 kick off for League one and two championships respectively.
It took the intervention of the newly elected president of the Cameroon Football federation,Mbombo Njoya weeks ago to at least minimize the differences between disagreeing parties for the board meeting to finally be held paving way for some progress generating this newfound optimism.
Another key issue from Friday’s board meeting was the fact that, the board members agreed to convene a League general assembly in the month of February.
The president of LFPC equally revealed that the infrastructures committee(pitch and auxiliary facilities management body) will carryout a routine preseason tour in the coming week to decide which infrastructures will be used for league matches.He was also quick inform the stakeholders that matches wouldn’t be played in Douala because the infrastructures are still under construction.The people of the Littoral region will no doubt enjoy league matches in Melong,Loum and why Edea.
The new format of the league is replacing the 34 games league one and 28 games league two format employed last season only for the upcoming season and the teams are grouped as follows:
ELITE ONE:
Pool A;
News Stars,Colombe, Union Sportive Douala, Avion Nkam,Apejes of Mfou, PWD social club of Bamenda, Cotonsport of Garoua, Dragon of Yaounde and Tonnerre Kalara Club of Yaounde
Pool B
UMS of Loum,Eding Sport FC, Feutcheu FC,Fovu of Baham, Astres of Douala, Unisport of Bafang,Stade Renard of Melong, YOSA Bamenda and AS Fortuna.
ELITE TWO:
Pool A
FAP Yaounde,Panthère Nde, AS Etoa Meki, Canon Yaounde,Bang Bullets of Nkambe,AS Matelots and Dynamo of Douala
Pool B
Renaissance, Racing of Bafoussam, YAFOOT Bamboutos FC, OFTA of Kribi,Léopard Sportive, Aigle Royal and Lion blessé of Fortuni.
Pool B in the elite one championship may have just four titles (UMS in 2016, Unisport in 1996, Fovu in 2000 and Eding Sport FC in 2017) previous winners of the league but the league performance of the clubs in that pool in recent years makes the group a very tough one.
15 times winners and current champions, Cotonsport of Garoua is in Pool A alongside 5 times Champions TKC and 5 times winners Union Sportive Douala.The pool has an incredible amount of 25 titles but for Union Sportive of Douala and TKC there is more and more evidence to show they have moved from yesteryears contenders to present day pretenders.
6 of the 10 regions of Cameroon will be represented in this year’s competitions with Adamawa region,South West,East Region and Far North not represented.
Angu Lesley
