By Mark Baber
October 8 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced seven bidders in the competition to host the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations; Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
The bidding process, which began August 23, followed the admission by Libya that it would be impossible for them to host the tournament following the instability and insecurity in the country.
CAF declared that: “Considering the limited time left for the organization of the 2017 edition, the CAF executive committee will select a host country whose dossier guarantees that accommodation, transportation and hotels facilities, as well as training sites and stadiums, already exist.”
A very short deadline of the end of September was given for the submission of bids, with the decision on hosts for the 2019, 2021 and 2023 tournaments (won by Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Guinea respectively) having fallen within that window.
A prospective bid from Mali failed to materialise and Kenya, who had been pushing for a joint East African bid, have in the end gone it alone.
All of those in the running have won previous bids but in the case of Kenya and Zimbabwe replacements had to be found due to lack funding and of preparations respectively.
Since that failure, Zimbabwe has successfully hosted a number of regional tournaments. Ghana look to be among the favourites with infrastructure in place. Whilst Egypt has infrastructure, and where CAF has regional headquarters, the recent unrest in that country may give CAF pause for thought.
The final designation of the host country will be made at a meeting of the CAF Executive Committee, tentatively set for April 2015.
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