Morocco’s government has called for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be postponed amid the spiralling Ebola health crisis.
The biennial international tournament is due to be hosted in the north west African country in January and February 2015.
However, there have been calls from some for qualifiers against afflicted countries – Sierra Leone and Guinea are among those competing for a place in next year’s finals – to be postponed over Ebola concerns.
Morocco, 2015’s host nation, has so far avoided any cases of the disease and its health ministry says “to avoid events which involve those countries affected by the Ebola virus” it wants the tournament to be postponed until a later date.
The request has been lodged with Caf, who organise the continental competition, with the qualifiers currently under way to decide the 15 available spots for the finals.
The current outbreak of the disease is the worst in recorded history, with over 4,000 people having been killed by the untreatable virus.
The virus has largely been contained within west Africa, but cases of people being diagnosed with Ebola outside of the continent are becoming more common and there are fears that the crisis could go global.
Source: Goal
