- Gives Kenya’s slot to Egypt
By Monica Iheakam
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) named Morocco as the replacement for Kenya as the host of next year’s African Nations Championship.
At the CAF emergency meeting held in Lagos, Nigeria, Morocco, which was bidding to stage the 2026 World Cup, was chosen over Equatorial Guinea at an emergency meeting of the CAF Executive Committee in Lagos.
Ethiopia had also expressed an interest after Kenya were stripped of the competition but failed to secure the Government support to mount a bid.
Agadir’s Stade Adrar, Tangier’s Stade Ibn Batouta, Casablanca’s Stade Mohammed V and the Marrakesh Stadium are due to be the venues used for the African Nations Championship.
Kenya lost the hosting rights for the tournament, scheduled to run from January 12 to February 4, due to concerns over infrastructure.
A CAF inspection team, led by FIFA Council member and vice-president Constant Omari, had recommended the country be stripped of the event after reporting only one venue was ready.
Meanwhile, Egypt has been given the express ticket to participate in the 2018 African Nations Championship finals in Morocco.
Egypt had originally failed to qualify for the tournament after losing to Morocco in the playoffs. However, with Morocco taking the role of tournament host, an extra place has become available in the North Zone, and Egypt has been assigned to that place.
“Following the designation of Morocco as host of Total CHAN 2018, the CAF Emergency Committee, meeting in Lagos, decided to qualify Egypt for the final tournament,” CAF said in a statement on its website.
“It will be Egypt’s very first participation in this competition, running since 2009, which will be in its fifth edition, bringing together only players playing in the championships of their countries,” the statement added.
Only those players who are active in the domestic championships and qualified to play in the ongoing season are permitted to take part.
The tournament is held every two years, alternating with the Africa Cup of Nations.
The first tournament was held in Ivory Coast in 2009, with the Democratic Republic of Congo taking the title. The competition was expanded to 16 teams for the second tournament, which took place in Sudan in 2011, with Tunisia taking home the trophy.