March 12 – Rwanda have withdrawn their bid to host the 2019 U-17 World Cup, the country’s FA president confirmed.
President of the Rwandan FA, Vincent Nzamwita, said preparations were lagging. “We had so many things that were not ready or prepared and decided it was only good that we withdraw,” he told the BBC. “We however remain ambitious to bid again in the near future.”
The Rwandans had been confident of staging the tournament in spite of bids from both Kenya and Singapore. They would have become the third African country to host the junior competition after Egypt in 1997 and Nigeria in 2009.
“After submitting our intent last year to host the tournament, critically we realised that we are left with a few months to the start of the tournament,” said Nzamwita. “Therefore we did not have enough time to logistically meet the minimum requirements of hosting a successful event.”
FIFA had been set to inspect Rwanda’s facilities and infrastructure last month, but that inspection visit was postponed at the last minute.
The news came at a bad moment for the Rwandans as African Football Confederation (CAF) president Ahmad Ahmad was visiting the country. He paid a visit to Kigali Memorial Center and later attended the Africa Union of Broadcasting (AUB) Forum in the Rwandan capital.
In the past Rwanda hosted the 2016 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN). India were the last hosts of the U-17 World Cup last year, welcoming 24 teams to six host cities. England won the competition defeating Spain 5-2 in the final.
Contact the writer of this story Samindra Kunti at moc.l1734805410labto1734805410ofdlr1734805410owedi1734805410sni@o1734805410fni1734805410