AFCON
WITH GUINEA’S HOSTING RIGHTS ALSO SHIFTED, IT WILL BE 12 YEARS IN 2025 SINCE A DESIGNATED HOST HOSTED AFCON
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Confederation of African Football, CAF has announced Guinea as hosts of 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. The country was originally to host in 2023, but a shift was effected following the unfolding logjam that has crept into continental premier competition after the withdrawal of 2019 hosting rights from Cameroon.
Ahmad, the CAF president later offered Cameroon the 2021 host rights and shifted that of Cote d’Ivoire, the initial host-designate to that of 2023.
Guinea will host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations instead of the 2023 edition. No designated host has hosted the competition since that of 2013 and the trend has now gone for a decade affecting seven editions.
Speaking on a visit to Guinea on Sunday when he was joined by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Ahmad told the media that Guinea’s President Alpha Condé had agreed to delay in hosting the tournament.
The Guinea Football Federation (Feguifoot) statement comes just a few days after its president Antonio Souare told BBC Sport they had not been “notified, neither by a letter or a decree” about the proposed delay in hosting.
In 2014, CAF awarded Nations Cup hosting rights to Cameroon (2019), Cote d’Ivoire (2021) and Guinea (2023).
After the reported changes to the schedule, Cote d’Ivoire – which is now set to host in 2023 – lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the CAF decision to hand the 2021 tournament to Cameroon.
On Wednesday, CAF will announce who will host this year’s finals – with both Egypt and South Africa contesting.
TALE OF HOSTING RIGHTS
YEAR Designated Hosts Eventual Hosts
2013 Libya South Africa
2015 Morocco Equatorial Guinea
2017 Libya Gabon
2019 Cameroon To be decided
2021 Cote d’Ivoire Assigned to Cameroon
2023 Guinea Assigned to Cote d’Ivoire
2025 Assigned to Guinea ????
AFCON
Libya sacks coach ahead of AFCON qualifying back-to-back matches with Nigeria
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.
AFCON
CAF president blasts Ghana, others over stadium ban
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.
AFCON
Present and Past as CAF Coaches Symposium unites Rohr, Peseiro and Eguavoen
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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