Some 40 national sports federations participated in the workshop.
Sports management constantly needs specific competences as well as personal skills since sports like any other activity evolves constantly. It is for this reason that a two-day forum on the management of sports associations in Cameroon opened in Yaounde last Tuesday.
Organised by the National Olympic Committee (CNO) the workshop brought together some 40 sports federations in the country. The forum is in line with the programme of activities of the national Olympic Committee for the 2005-2008 Olympiad. The aim of the CNO is to create a medium of communication and exchange between the members of the national Olympic movement and to ensure the development of sports in the country.
For two days, participants listened to lectures on sports management: how to finance sports movements in Cameroon, the role of marketing in Cameroon and the financing of sports, the relationship between the State and the
sports movement, interpersonal relations in sports management, the fight against doping, etc.
Opening the forum, the President of the National Olympic Committee, Colonel Kalkaba Malboum, said that the training will enable sports managers to better assume their roles by putting into practice the knowledge obtained in the forum in the daily activities of their federations. He called on the participants to make good use of the knowledge they have acquired to help improve sports in the country. Adding that sports managers have a vital role to play in the promotion of sports in the country.
Talking briefly to the press, Colonel Kalkaba Malboum said that it is important for a sports federation to have a good programme in order to attract sponsors. "What we have to do is to first of all have a good programme and secondly to have a good organisation of events professionally. Also we need support from the media because if one company becomes a sponsor, it needs to have advertisement" he said.
