Egypt beats South Africa for right to host 2019 Africa Cup

Egypt will replace Cameroon as the host of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals, the Confederation of African Football has announced.

Egypt was awarded the rights to host this year’s tournament during a meeting of the confederation’s executive committee in Dakar yesterday.

South Africa was the only other country to put forward its candidacy to replace Cameroon, which was stripped of hosting rights late last year.

After several visits in which red flags were repeatedly raised over the Central African nation’s readiness to host the tournament between June 15 and July 13, the confederation announced last month that it would take the tournament elsewhere.

Perhaps anticipating that the body would find its infrastructure inadequate, Cameroon entered the qualifying process for the 2019 cup, despite automatically making it through as hosts.

The Indomitable Lions, managed by the former Real Madrid and Netherlands midfielder Clarence Seedorf, are second in Group B with one round of matches left to play. Only the top two in each group qualify.

Egypt entered the running

South Africa was the only other country to put forward a bid to replace Cameroon as tournament host

to host the tournament only when fellow North African country Morocco announced it would not enter a bid.

This will be the fourth time Egypt has hosted the continental championship and the first since 2006, when the national team beat Ivory Coast in the final.

Egyptian football has been on the rise in recent years.

It also boasts a bona-fide superstar in Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah. The Pharaohs and Liverpool forward enjoyed a sensational 2017-2018 season in which he set scoring records in the Premier League and won a host of individual awards. Salah was crowned African Footballer of the Year, a title he was expected to retain at an awards ceremony in Dakar last night.

The country has many stadiums capable of hosting international matches.

But the Egyptian authorities only recently started to allow fans back into stadiums for domestic matches after a three-year hiatus because of security concerns.

Egypt faces a constant threat from terrorism but the weather will be another challenge for players, with conditions expected to be hot and humid.