Safa says no bid for Afcon yet

The South African Football Association (Safa) have hastily retracted a previous statement that they have submitted documents to bid to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Safa communications manager Dominic Chimhavi said on Friday morning that a report by news agency AFP‚ quoting him saying the association have “submitted our bid documents”‚ was incorrect.

He said the report about as a result of a

Chimhavi said Safa’s senior leadership‚ including president Danny Jordaan‚ were still to meet sports minister Tokozile Xasa and department of sport director-general Alec Moemi on Friday to obtain a final go-ahead on whether to submit a bid.

“No‚ we didn’t submit documents. The [Confederation of African Football‚ or Caf] deadline is midnight tonight‚” Chimhavi said Friday.

“We haven’t submitted. That is the position.” came “miscommunication”.

Chimhavi said the AFP was incorrect.

“It was a miscommunication. The thing is we have expressed interest, but we haven’t submitted the documents as yet‚” he confirmed.

Chimhavi said Friday’s meeting between Safa and the department of sport will finalise whether the country will submit a bid.

“Meeting the government will shape our decision as to whether we will go ahead or not‚” he said

Late on Thursday night, AFP reported that SA had submitted a bid for the tournament‚ the hosting of which was stripped by Caf from Cameroon at the end of November due to readiness issues.

They quoted Chimhavi‚ by e-mail‚ saying: “We have submitted our bid documents. [It] is now up to Caf to decide [who hosts the 2019 Cup of Nations].”

Egypt are reportedly considering a bid for the tournament‚ which runs from June 15 to July 13, 2019.

Morocco have reportedly backed out of a bid. report