Johannesburg, October 2 (BNA) The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that Guinea has been stripped of the right to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, and the bidding process for the tournament is scheduled to reopen on Saturday.
It follows a meeting on Friday in Conakry between the interim president of Guinea, Colonel Mamady Domboya, and the head of the Confederation of African Football, Patrice Motsebe, to discuss the withdrawal after the West African country, one of the continent’s poorest, said it was not. Ready to host the tournament 24 countries.
“I visited Guinea out of respect for the people of Guinea to discuss CAF’s readiness to advise and work with football stakeholders to build and build football infrastructure and facilities in this country, in light of CAF’s decision not to proceed with the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Guinea,” Motsebe said in a statement.
Sources told Reuters that despite the announcement, the decision was made in June.
The CAF statement said that the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football will meet in Algiers on Saturday and take a decision to reopen the door for candidacy for the 2025 tournament.
In 2014, Guinea originally secured the rights to host the 2023 finals, along with Cameroon (2019) and Ivory Coast (2021).
But Cameroon was stripped of the right to host the 2019 tournament, as it was not ready, with Egypt filling up. Cameroon was then awarded the 2021 tournament, which was eventually held earlier this year after being postponed for a year due to the coronavirus. 19 pandemic.
Ivory Coast was due to host the next tournament in mid-2023, but it was moved to early 2024 following concerns about the weather at that time of year in the region, Reuters reported.
Expanding the Nations Cup to 24 teams in 2019 meant that Guinea’s scattered infrastructure would always be under pressure, and the decision is not surprising.
The country witnessed a coup a year ago when the commander of the Dumboya special forces ousted President Alpha Conde. A year ago, Conde changed the constitution to get around restrictions that would have prevented him from running for a third term, sparking widespread riots.
Domboya became interim president and promised to move to democratic elections within three years.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States rejected the timetable and imposed sanctions on junta members and their relatives, including freezing their bank accounts.
In July, the regional bloc gave Guinea until October 22 to set a “reasonable” timetable or face additional sanctions.