AFCON
FROM CAPE TO CAIRO, CAF’S HUNT FOR AFCON 2019 HOSTS ENDS ON TUESDAY
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Confederation of African Football, CAF will announce the hosts for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday morning, 24 hours ahead of the Wednesday initially designated time.
An e-mail sent to the Sports Village Square by the media unit of CAF indicates that there the CAF Executive Meeting which will decide the host nation will now hold on Tuesday instead of Wednesday morning.
The decision will no precede the CAF Awards, which holds later in the evening. A press conference will follow immediately after the meeting at the same venue.
Two countries, South Africa and Egypt are contesting to host the tournament originally slated for Cameroon. Both had in the past hosted the tournament.
Egypt, the obvious super power of Africa Cup of Nations, is gunning for hosting for the fifth time having hosted in 1959, 1974, 1986 and 2006. South Africa has hosted twice in 1996 and 2013.
Facility-wise, both nations are eminently qualified to host an expanded Africa Cup of Nations tournament. South Africa however has the edge having hosted a bigger tournament, the 2010 World Cup which featured 32 teams.
But the snag against the rainbow country is that 25 finalists may emege for the 24-team format tournament if the country clinch the hosting rights but fails to beat Libya in March.
As host, South Africa will qualify automatically while Libya will pick a ticket on the field. The original host country, Cameroon has also picked a ticket on the field.
CAF will have to address the issue of Libya. Egypt has also qualified and have football culture as well as existing facilities to cope with a 24-team format tournament.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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