Record Champions Egypt Set To Host 2019 AFCON Finals
8th January 2019
It will be the fifth time they stage the biennial showpiece of African football after 1959, when the country was called the United Arab Republic, 1974, 1986 and 2006
- Egypt will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations between June 15 and July 13, Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Ahmad Ahmad announced in Dakar Tuesday
- The CAF executive committee preferred Egypt to South Africa as replacements for original hosts Cameroon, who were dropped due to delays in preparations and concerns over security
- A CAF official told AFP that Egypt received 16 votes from the executive committee, South Africa one and there was one abstention
DAKAR, Senegal- Egypt
will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations between June 15 and July 13,
Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Ahmad Ahmad announced in
Dakar Tuesday.
The CAF executive committee preferred Egypt to South Africa
as replacements for original hosts Cameroon, who were dropped due to delays in
preparations and concerns over security.
"I am pleased to announce that Egypt will host CAN (Cup
of Nations) 2019," Malagasy Ahmad told reporters.
"I want to thank the two countries -- they came to the
rescue of the CAF when we saw that the evolution of the work in Cameroon was
not developed."
A CAF official told AFP that Egypt received 16 votes from
the executive committee, South Africa one and there was one abstention.
Ahmad made the announcement just hours after CAF said it
would not disclose the winner until Wednesday to allow the media to concentrate
on the annual awards ceremony in Dakar later Tuesday.
It will be the fifth time Egypt stage the biennial showpiece
of African football after 1959, when the country was called the United Arab
Republic, 1974, 1986 and 2006.
Egypt only entered the running to host the Cup of Nations
when fellow North African country Morocco announced they would not bid to do
so.
Morocco were the hot media favourites to replace Cameroon as
hosts and Egypt said they "did not want to compete against a fellow Arab
nation".
Egypt boast many international-standard venues with the
Cairo International Stadium (72,000) and Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria
(87,000) boasting the largest capacities.
Ismailia, Port Said and Suez are other possible venues for
tournament matches as the Cup of Nations returns to North Africa after a
13-year absence.
Record-extending
title
The choice of Egypt will immediately make them favourites to
win a record-extending eighth Cup of Nations title this year.
They won three of the four previous tournaments they hosted,
failing only in 1974 when they were beaten by Zaire (now the Democratic
Republic of Congo) in the semi-finals.
The star of the current team, Liverpool attacker Mohamed
Salah, is favourite to retain the African Player of the Year award in Dakar.
Security and weather will be two challenges facing Egypt in
the first Cup of Nations to feature 24 teams, up from 16 in Gabon two years
ago.
Egypt faces a constant terror threat in the volatile Middle
East region and the weather during the tournament is expected to be hot and
humid.
Djamel Belmadi, coach of 2019 qualifiers Algeria, said
recently that he would prefer South Africa to host the tournament because of
the cooler weather conditions there.
"It is almost impossible to play (in Egypt) given the
heat and humidity," he told the Algerian media. "The weather
conditions in South Africa are more pleasant."
Egyptian football official Karam Kordi responded: "It
would be better if Belmadi said he was afraid of the enthusiastic Egyptian
supporters."
Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya,
Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda
have qualified for the 2019 tournament.
The other 10 places will be filled after the final
qualifiers between March 18 and 26.