By Mark Baber
May 26 – Liberia have been given the go ahead by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to play international matches on home soil following the 9 May declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the country is officially “Ebola Free.”
CAF prevented Liberia from hosting home matches in July last year as Ebola took hold in the country and all sporting activities came to an end.
Total fatalities from the Liberian outbreak are estimated at 5,000 people, out of an 11,000 total across West Africa to date.
CAF announced the move on its website saying, “CAF has through a circular dated Thursday, 21 May 2015 and signed by General Secretary, Hicham El Amrani informed its 54 Member Associations that the Liberia Football Association has received authorization to host CAF competitions on their territory.”
“This follows a further exchange of correspondence between CAF and the World Health Organization (WHO). The latter confirmed that Liberia was officially declared “Ebola Free” on 9 May 2015, and hence advised CAF to allow the possibility to host football matches in the West African country which was hit by the epidemic over a year ago.”
Liberia will now be able to play 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifying matches, which begin next month, and 2018 World Cup qualifying matches on home soil.
It is worth noting that FIFA, CAF and the Liberia Football Association, working very closely with the United Nations, have played a highly commendable role throughout the Ebola crisis, including in allowing Monrovia’s Antoinette Tubman Stadium to be used as the site for two large-scale Ebola treatment units with FIFA agreeing to pay the costs of any damages and in using money from the FIFA solidarity fund to help the countries effected.
Despite the excellent news regarding Liberia, the WHO has advised CAF to continue to ask Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the Ebola epidemic has not yet been defeated, to play their home matches outside the country.