By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has agreed to discuss a plea by organisers of next year’s African Nations Cup to postpone the 16-nation tournament because of the ebola crisis but stressed there are currently no plans to shift it.
Morocco’s government has written to CAF asking for the January 17 to February 8 event to be called off, a request that will be debated at the next CAF executive committee meeting on November 2, followed 24 hours later by a separate meeting with Moroccan officials.
More than 4,000 people have died in west Africa as a result of the virus and the Moroccan health ministry wants the Nations Cup delayed in line with its policy of avoiding events “which involve those countries affected by the Ebola virus”.
CAF responded in a statement that there were “no changes of the schedule” to the competition stressing that “since the first edition in 1957, the Africa Cup of Nations has never witnessed a deferral or a change in schedule.”
In July, Seychelles cancelled and forfeited their Nations Cup qualifier home match against Sierra Leone because of fears over the spread of Ebola. And CAF has placed an indefinite ban on Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea – the three countries worst affected by the outbreak – from hosting matches in their own countries.
Sierra Leone and Guinea, the two nations involved in Nations Cup qualifying, have been playing their ‘home’ matches in DR Congo and Morocco respectively.
Moroccan sports minister Mohammed Ouzzine said it was too early to say how his country would respond if CAF maintained its current stance.
“We’ve arranged to meet up and discuss the technical options connected to this demand for a postponement,” he was quoted as saying. “This demand is motivated essentially by the last report from the World Health Organisation, which contained alarming numbers at the extent and spread of the virus.
“All that means we (Morocco) are facing a historic responsibility. We understand CAF’s difficulty, but that said, never in history has there been such an Ebola epidemic.”
He said there was a difference between the Nations Cup and the Club World Cup, due to be staged in Morocco in December. “We are speaking of a large number of supporters (at the Nations Cup), 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 or even more. We are not equipped for that and I can’t see other countries being able to ensure checks and controls for such a large number either.”
Should the tournament be moved from Morocco, South Africa could potentially step in, having twice before come to the tournament’s rescue, replacing Kenya in 1996 and war-torn Libya last year.
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