Sports
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The Confederation of African Football has given Equatorial Guinea the go ahead to host the AFCON 2015 after turning down Morocco’s request to delay the football tournament because of the outbreak Ebola Virus Disease in the West African sub-region
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Nov. 24, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE Confederation of African Football, CAF, has named Equatorial Guinea as the hosts of 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. CAF choose the country after Morocco, the initial host nation, asked for the game to be delayed because of the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in West Africa, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives. The African football governing body rejected that request and subsequently stripped Morocco of the right to host the tournament, as well as ejecting their national team from the competition.
CAF said they have no doubt that it would be a beautiful tournament that would meet the same standards the continent had seen in past years. The governing body said the decision on the new hosts was made after a meeting in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Friday, November 14, between Teodoro Obiang, President of Equatorial Guinea and Issa Hayatou, CAF president. It said: “The head of state of Equatorial Guinea agreed to host the competition. As a result, the CAF executive committee confirm that the tournament will go ahead and Equatorial Guinea will compete as the host nation. CAF wishes to express its sincere thanks to the Equatorial Guinean people, its government and particularly President Obiang.”
According to Hayatou, delaying the tournament as Morocco had requested would have hurt CAF’s relationship with its sponsors, while some of Africa’s top players may not have been released by their European clubs to play in a re-scheduled tournament. “Once you postpone this event, it will open the door for everybody to ask for a delay of any competition and we will no longer be credible and cannot organise anything. We will hurt our sponsors and partners. That is what I told the Moroccans. We cannot sign our death warrant, because if we postpone this event, it will be very deadly for African football,” he said.
The oil-rich Spanish-speaking country hosted the 2012 finals with their neighbours Gabon but will take on the 16-team tournament on their own from 17 January to 8 February, 2015.
Prior to the new arrangement, Equatorial Guinea was disqualified from the preliminaries in August for fielding an illegible player.
Matches will be held at four venues in Bata, Ebebiyin, Mongomo and the capital Malabo. In 2012, the tournament was hosted in Malabo and Bata while the draw for the finals will be in Malabo on December 3.
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