FECAFOOT NW: President Mbigha Felix Advance Reasons For Delay In Realizing Ntaafi Proximity Stadium

By Martial Gnoukapasi

Mbigha Felix facing the press at the ntaafi proximity stadium site

FECAFOOT Northwest President Mbigha Njah Felix, Friday 30th at the project site explained to the press that the fully funded UNDP Proximity Stadium Project awarded 3 months back was to be delivered to football lovers in the region on this December 30th, but because of errors noticed in the contract during realisation, work stopped at some point.

"This is one of the first Project UNDP is realising concerning stadiums and some irregularities were noticed in the contract which were not okay for a football field, so we had to revisit the studies and reaward the project which took us about 2 - 3 months..."

Mr Mbigha said the first mistake realized in the initial contract was that the office building was designed to also play host to the dressing room which isn't okay for a football facility. "If this was to be the case it will mean players will have to trek for long before accessing the field from the dressing room and during half time"

excavation works completed already

The final draft of the contract has seen some modification with the dressing room now to be constructed under the grandstand, the envisaged story building complex to host offices reduced to a single floor building and a retaining wall to hold the stadium added in the specifications of the project.

The new working document will be handed to the contractors and engineers on January 4th 2023.

Meantime for what has been done, MNews237 observed that the entire field has been excavated with the tribune stage dug already.

The FECAFOOT Northwest boss also indicated that the synthetic turf for the multi- sport arena divided into three lots is already available and that work will progress speedily after that to ensure that the project is achieved in record time to also enable Elite I to start playing their home matches at home.

" We are doing our best to make sure  that the field is realize on time because this is the only field that can host our matches for now"

Responding on the social media campaign launched by football supporters for home games in the elite one to be played in Bamenda, president Mbigha Felix said there's no standard field therein for these games to be played and that the teams should work hard and win games on the turfs hosting their games.

On the Bamenda municipal stadium he said there field is still under a court injunction and nothing can be done there for now.

"The budget allocated for that field has been used with work not completed. FECAFOOT does not have the documents for the field and so they can't engage the project" he adds

He also hinted that probably in January of 2023, FECAFOOT will announce the next contract for the construction of another stadium in Bamenda.