April 15 – Having been stripped of hosting rights for this year’s Africa’s showpiece event, the African Cup of Nations, Cameroon have instead been handed the consolation prize of the 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in place of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopians have withdrawn from the continental tournament, which exclusively features locally based players at African clubs, a somewhat more low-key event than AFCON.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Ahmad Ahmad, who was the driving force behind stripping Cameroon as AFCON hosts, said Chan had gone to Cameroon “by tacit agreement”
In 2014, CAF awarded Nations Cup hosting rights to Cameroon (2019), Ivory Coast (2021) and Guinea (2023).
But in December 2018, Ahmad caused outrage when, having ditched Cameroon as hosts of AFCON in 2019 despite insisting there was no plan B. He said they could host the event in 2021 even though that is the property of the Ivory Coast, and the Cameroonians insisted that they could have been ready to host 2019.
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