By James Robert Kayindi
South Africa has rejected an offer from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) requesting to host the Africa Nations Cup come January 2015 in case Morocco withdraws from hosting the tourney because of the Ebola epidemic as earlier reports suggested.
CAF had earlier approached South Africa and Ghana among other countries on whether they can host AFCON 2015 ahead of their meeting in November that will decide the future of the tournament.
“Hosting AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations) is a NO NO”, the South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula tweeted on Monday 20th.
In his argument, he said he has a responsibility to protect the people of Africa and help fight the Ebola epidemic that has left over 4500 people dead in West African since March this year.
“Even before taking the matter to cabinet, I can tell you unambiguously and categorically that hosting is a no-no. We do not have a ready-made abundance of resources to be shifted to Afcon”, the minister told the media. “We did it (host the 2013 Afcon) in solidarity with Libya last year. Our budget cycle will not allow us to host the (2015) Afcon. It is totally impossible. We would like to give this one a pass.”
CAF will now have to look at Ghana, Egypt, and Nigeria among other nations that would like to host the tourney in case Morocco withdraws from hosting it.
Email Robert: robert.k.circles@gmail.com
