2019 AFCON: Doubts Over Cameroon As Hosts

Doubts over Cameroon’s readiness to host the 2019 AFCON has resurfaced and reports suggest CAF could be close to taking a vote of no confidence.
After a two-day meeting at the Egyptian holiday resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, which concluded at the weekend, the CAF Executive Committee reported that a projected video report on Cameroon’s preparation for the competition ‘showed a significant delay in the realization of the infrastructures’.
The slow pace of facility development is not the only reason being put up for the possible conciliation of the earlier hosting rights to Cameroon.
The on-going crisis in the Central African Country, between the largely Anglophone western Cameroon people and the majority French speaking parts of the country, is also a cause for concern.
The CAF Executive Committee report states that a joint CAF and FIFA commission will travel to the Country this month to study the security issues.
CAF was expected to declare their final position on Cameroon’s Afcon hosting rights this week but the executive committee postponed the announcement to November.
The Africa Cup of Nations with its new 24-team format will be held from June 15 to July 13 next year.
Caf said it had also sent an inspection team to the Ivory Coast, which is due to host the 2021 Nations Cup.
“Of the six stadiums required for the competition, four are to be built and two undergoing major renovations. For accommodation, three out of five cities have no infrastructure,” a Caf statement said.
Meanwhile, Caf has confirmed that the eight-team Women’s Nations Cup finals are set to take place from 17 November to 1 December in Ghana as planned with Accra and Cape Coast scheduled to host the matches.
Africa’s football body stated that “the Caf Secretariat will closely monitor the progress of preparations.”
Questions had been raised about whether Ghana was ready to host the Women’s Nations Cup especially in light of the recent crisis in the country’s football association.
The top three will all qualify for next year’s Women’s World Cup in France.
However Equatorial Guinea cannot play at the World Cup following a ban by Fifa “for fielding ineligible players and for the use of forged and falsified documents by two of its players.”
The ineligible players were used in the qualifiers of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament for Rio 2016
Nigeria is the defending champion after beating hosts Cameroon 1-0 in the 2016 final.
The Super Falcons have won eight of the 10 tournaments played so far with Equatorial Guinea winning in 2008 and 2012.