AFCON
Guinea stripped of hosting rights for 2025 Africa Cup of Nations
Guinea has been removed as host of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which says the country is not ready to hold the tournament.
It is the latest in a long line of editions of the competition to have had a disrupted build-up, with the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations the last not to have been moved either geographically or on the calendar.
A military junta has run Guinea since September 2021, when colonel Mamady Doumbouya appointed himself Interim President of the country.
“The Executive Committee was unanimous that Guinea will not be ready to host the competition,” the CAF said in a statement.
“The Executive Committee took a unanimous decision based on the report as submitted that the tournament be withdrawn from Guinea.
“The President suggested that a delegation be sent to Guinea to inform them of the decision taken by the Executive Committee.
“The Executive Committee resolved to send a delegation to Guinea to inform them of CAF’s decision to withdraw the Africa Cup of Nations, Guinea 2025 from Guinea.”
The CAF now needs a new host for 2025 and reports from Nigeria indicate the Nigeria Football Federation is plotting a joint bid with Benin.
The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations was held in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, as planned.
The 2013 version was held in South Africa, after it swapped 2017 hosting rights with Libya which was the scene of a civil war.
Due to the threat of Ebola, Morocco withdrew as host in 2015 and was replaced by Equatorial Guinea.
With conflict continuing in Libya, the CAF moved the 2017 tournament to Gabon.
Egypt then took over in 2019 from Cameroon over concerns that Cameroon could not deal with the move to a 24-team tournament.
The COVID-19 crisis and weather delayed a 2021 tournament supposed to be in Cameroon, which was scheduled for June and July in 2021 but moved to the start of the year due to heat concerns.
It was ultimately pushed back to 2022 because of the global health crisis.
As part of the domino effect caused by Cameroon’s withdrawal as 2019 host and later reinstatement for 2021, an Ivorian Africa Cup of Nations was delayed from 2021 to 2023 and Guinea’s right to hold the tournament moved to 2025.
Because of weather concerns, the next Africa Cup of Nations has already been moved to January 2024.
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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.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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