By James Robert Kayindi
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) came out on Thursday and announced that the host nation for the Africa Cup of Nations 2017 will be disclosed this year on 8th April at the body’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
Africa’s number one footballing nation Algeria, seven time AFCON winners Egypt, four time champions Ghana and 2012 co-host Gabon are the four candidates that will be fighting to host the biennial continental tournament.
The development follows CAF’s bid to replace a post war stricken Libya who were meant to be the 2017 hosts of the tournament after passing it on to South Africa back in 2013.
The federation also revealed changes in the qualification campaign in which the host nation will participate though its matches will be considered as friendlies and will therefore have no point count.
The draws for the qualification campaign will also be held on the same day (8th April) in which 52 CAF member countries will be seeded in 13 groups. Each group leader will qualify directly while the two best runners up will also be taken.
Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Guinea will host the Africa Cup of Nations come 2019, 2021 and 2023 respectively.
According to the continental football body, the qualification campaign will kick-off in June while the 2018 World Cup qualifiers will begin later in October at the preliminary stages.
Email Robert: Robert.k.cirlces@gmail.com
