Cameroon Red Carded

The confederation of African football strips cameroon of the hosting rights for the 2019 Africa cup of Nations

the question on the lips of African football players and fans, and especially administrators at the Confederation of African Football (CAF), is where will the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) be held? One thing is sure: Scheduled from June 15 to July 13, 2019, it will not be held in Cameroon. After bitter discussions lasting nearly 10 hours at the CAF General Assembly, which took place on November 30, 2018, in Accra, Ghana, members of CAF’S Executive Committee unanimously decided to strip Cameroon from its hosting rights for this major African football event. Rumors were rife following the decision, marking the beginning of a long and dramatic soap opera around what country would replace Cameroon as host. Finally, on December 6, 2018, the CAF sent out a call for applications to all its member federations in order to find the next host country for Africa’s biggest football competition. Interested federations had to submit their application no later than December 14. The winning country will be chosen after a rigorous selection process. Unless a major surprise takes place, the CAF should choose one of the two contenders: Egypt or South Africa.

Cameroon not ready

In a long press release put out after the assembly, the CAF explained its decision. It said that both the compliance conditions and the deadlines had not been respected during the construction process. There was also a “gap between the requirements and obligations related to CAN specifications and the reality on the ground,” added the press release.

The CAF based its decision, among other things, on reports from its various expert missions sent to Cameroon to inspect the construction works being carried out. According to the reports from the recent security mission, as well as those of the site inspection mission, it appears that at each of these visits, Cameroon was found to be wanting and considerably behind its deadlines. In terms of security, the rise of secessionist groups poses a threat to football matches to be held in Limbe, while those in Garoua in the northern part of the country, are said to be in the potential crosshairs of the militant organization Boko Haram.

After the press release, the CAF President Ahmad Ahmad said his priority was “to preserve the interest of our stakeholders and especially our players,” and that “many were injured during the previous CAN due to organizational conditions.”

The CAN 2019 will be the first competition to be held in its new format, bringing together not 16 but 24 African nations, and will be the first one to take place during the summer. The CAF decision was a major blow to Cameroon, which has won the competition five times and still holds the trophy of the 2017 tournament. But despite its glorious history, Cameroon hosted the CAN only once,