October 1 – The decision on whether to give the green light to Cameroon to stage the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has been deferred yet again – this time until November.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) chief Ahmad Ahmad said two separate inspection visits will be made in October and November to the central African country, whose hosting of the finals have been in jeopardy ever since the decision to increase the size of the tournament from 16 to 24 teams.
CAF have made several inspections already of the five proposed venues and their executive committee had been expected to make a final decision at their meeting in Egypt on Friday.
Instead Ahmad reported that CAF would not make any decision until well after the Cameroonian presidential election of October 7. “We do not want to disrupt the campaign,” he said.
CAF did confirm 15 June – 13 July as the dates for the tournament, which was previously held in January much to the annoyance of club managers in Europe forced to release their African players to international duty in mid-season.
Morocco has long been suggested as an alternative for next year’s Nations Cup finals and has campaigned intensively to be named replacement hosts.
But Dieudonne Happi, interim head of the Cameroon federation, responded: “In the current state of things, I can tell you bluntly and without any risk of being wrong that Cameroon will be ready.”
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