18 February – The Democratic Republic of Congo is the latest African nation to announce their candidacy for hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
The race to host the 2019 competition is hotting up with Kenya and Uganda already having announced they will prepare a join bid and Zambia also declaring an interest. It is expected that Liberia, Nigeria and Algeria will all also declare candidacy.
The 2019 competition will be the 32nd edition of the event which DR Congo has won twice, in 1968 and 1974, but has never hosted.
The 2015 event will be held in Morocco and in Libya in 2017.
DR Congo’s sports minister Baudouin Banza Mukalay Nsungu said: “The DR Congo is an applicant for the candidates (to host) the 2019 AFCON tournament. I put the dossier into the hands of the FECOFA (Congolese football federation), which has already passed it onto CAF (the Confederation of African Football). We await the specifications, which we will fill calmly.”
Nsungu acknowledged that there is a problem with infrastructure required to host the tournament. “I know there is a problem with infrastructure,” he said, “but we’ll get started. It is an ambition of the government to stage this competition.”
The main matches would be plyed in the capital city, Kinshasa, and the southeastern city of Lumbumbashi.
A new stadium in the western port city of Matadi on the Congo River would be ready for 2019 and Kisangani, in the centre of the country, would also likely be a venue.
This is the third time the DR Congo has bid to host the Afrioca Cup of Nations.
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