Nigeria is to invite Cameroon, with whom it has had a recent border spat, to join a group of west African nations bidding to stage the 2010 World Cup, officials said on Tuesday.
Political tensions between Nigeria and Cameroon have heightened since last October when the World Court at The Hague ruled that the disputed oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula belongs to Cameroon. Talks have now begun under United Nations mediation to settle the dispute which in past years has sparked border clashes in the coastal swamplands.
Sports ministry representative Gboyega Okegbenro said that hosting the soccer finals with Cameroon would help improve relations.
”One of the main reasons we are proposing a joint bid along with Cameroon and some west African countries has to do with the issue of Bakassi. We believe if we host the competition together, it would improve greatly our relationship with Cameroon,” Okegbenro said.
”Through joint hosting of the competition, we will also improve co-operation and development in the west African sub-region in general.
”We would all improve our road networks as well as air travel within the region and all these will impact positively on our social and economic well being.”
A joint bid would also spread the costs in some of the world’s poorest countries.
”We have also consider the economic question. The cost of one country, a developing one for that matter like ours, hosting the World Cup is too monumental and as such we need to spread such cost among ourselves,” Okegbenro said.
Togo, Benin and Ghana, who hosted the 2000 African Nations Cup with Nigeria, are the other countries that form the joint west African bid.
Fifa have decided that the 2010 World Cup will for the first time be hosted by an African country. The other African countries in the running are South Africa, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and Egypt. They are all expected to table their detailed bids by April. – Sapa-AFP