January 16 – Teams arriving for the Africa Cup of Nations which starts tomorrow in Equatorial Guinea have reportedly been suffering from a lack of hotel rooms and other facilities.
Congo coach Claude Le Roy says five of his 35-strong party did not have accommodation and that those who were booked in have found lack of running water and exposed electrical cables.
Equatorial Guinea stepped in to host the tournament at the 11th hour after Morocco pulled out for refusing to stage the event because of fears of the spread of the Ebola virus and were subsequently banned from taking part.
Congo face the hosts in the opening game and are based in the port city of Bata.
“There are not enough places for my staff and it’s even difficult to find rooms for the players,” Le Roy told the BBC. “The electricity is terrible, everything is exposed. I wanted to wash my hands. There was no water. Some of my assistants went around to see if there were rooms available somewhere but it seems very very difficult. I don’t want a big five-star hotel. I just want something very clean.”
Equatorial Guinea were co-hosts with Gabon for the 2012 tournament but Le Roy said “time was too short to organise a tournament like this”
Burkina Faso coach Paul Put has also criticised facilities, saying the three-week event should have been delayed until June which is what Morocco asked for, only to be thrown out by the Confederation of African Football.