By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Once again a new venue looks like being needed for the African Cup of Nations after next year’s hosts Morocco reportedly pulled out because of fears over the Ebola virus.
Last week, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) received a letter from the Moroccan government asking for the 16-nation, three-week tournament starting January 17 to be called off and agreed to hold talks at the next CAF executive committee meeting on November 2.
Morocco asked to either postpone the tournament for a year or consider switching them to become 2017 hosts and Moroccan sports minister Mohamed Ouzzine was quoted as saying earlier this week the country was considering what action to take if CAG refused to accede to the request.
The African website supersport.com now claims it has been told by a Moroccan ministry of sport source that Morocco has already decided to pull out to “preserve the safety of our citizens”.
This could not be immediately confirmed by CAF but it is understood South Africa have already been in early negotiations to take over the tournament, while Sudan, Ghana and Egypt have also shown interest.
Morocco’s withdrawal, if confirmed, is likely to lead to heavy CAF sanctions, with potential punishments including the suspension of the national team and clubs.
A Ghanaian spokesman said they knew Morocco was likely to withdraw. “CAF wrote to us and indicated that Morocco had given strong indications they would pull out if CAF did not change the date,” Ghana Youth and Sports minister Mahama Ayariga was quoted as saying.
Almost 4,500 people have died in the Ebola epidemic that broke out in west Africa at the start of the year. Moroccan sports minister Mohammed Ouzzine said on Thursday that the tournament hosts would follow the lead of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has advised against big gatherings in the fight against the outbreak.
“We are talking about the Africa Cup of Nations where we are expecting between 200,000 to 400,000, even one million spectators to converge in Morocco,” he said.
“I don’t think there is any state or any country that has the necessary capabilities to monitor, check and control the current Ebola situation when faced with these numbers. This is our real problem. We don’t have a problem with visiting teams, we have a problem with visitors.”
CAF had apparently made clear they had no intention of agreeing to Morocco’s request to postpone the tournament. In a letter to willing replacement hosts CAF secretary general Hicham El Amrani wrote: “The CAF president will lead a delegation that will proceed to Morocco on November 3 in order to meet the Moroccan stakeholders and confirm CAF’s position.”
“In case Morocco refuses to maintain the staging of the competition at the agreed dates mentioned above, CAF would like to know whether your federation would be willing and able, with the agreement of your authorities, to organise the 30th edition of the African Cup of Nations 2015. Kindly note this letter is also sent to some other federations capable of staging the 2015 edition of the event.
“In case CAF received two or more positive responses, a draw will be made by the Executive Committee to designate the host of the 2015 edition in replacement of Morocco.”
Should the tournament have to be moved, it would be the third time in recent history, South Africa stepping in to replace Kenya in 1996 and strife-torn Libya last year.
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