Why Cameroon’s female handball missed the Olympic qualifiers
By Biwah Bryan
In an exchange with CNA, Pauline Youmsi, Secretary General of the Cameroon handball federation revealed why Cameroon was unable to participate in the 2024 Olympic games Qualifiers in Hungary.
Contrary to rumors that Cameroon was denied visas, Youmsi clarified that the visas were delayed.
“The first thing is that we were not denied visas, but the visas were delayed because Hungary, who is hosting the competition, doesn’t have an Embassy in Cameroon to facilitate the process…the treatment was transferred to the German Embassy, which would have taken about six months to treat all the visas needed.”
While Hungary, the African Handball Federation, and the International Handball Federation intervened to reduce the time needed to process visas, the team still could not travel.
“We would have arrived just 2 hours before our first game and the organizers of the competition were concerned about paying a 1 million sanction to a TV station that had streaming rights, should Cameroon be unable to play for unforeseen circumstances,” Youmsi explained.
“The organizers now decided to replace Cameroon and, by law, Cameroon was to be replaced by another African country, but no African country contacted could prepare within a short period. Hence, Great Britain had to replace Cameroon.”
According to the secretary general, Cameroon had already received all necessary documents from the Ministry of Sports including finances from the Ministry of Finance, and the Minister of Sports had already designated a team from the ministry to accompany the team for the competition.
Cameroon was initially paired in tournament 1 with Hungary, Japan, and Sweden, with the competition starting on April 11 and expected to qualify six teams for the Olympic games, with two teams coming from each qualifying tournament.
