The Confederation of African
Football (CAF) has stripped the hosting rights for the 2015 Africa Cup of
Nations from Morocco, and ejected its national team from the tournament,
following the refusal of the country’s government to stage the event in its
specified dates due to the Ebola crisis.
The CAF has been engaged in a game
of brinkmanship with Moroccan authorities over the past month after the
government initially stated that it would not keep to the January 15 until
February 8 hosting dates for the Cup of Nations. The Moroccan government on
Saturday maintained its stance over the tournament to leave the CAF with the
prospect of either accepting the request to postpone or finding a new host
nation.
The CAF last week confirmed that it
would not change the dates of its showpiece national team tournament despite
the outbreak of Ebola across the continent and called on host nation Morocco to
make a final decision about staging the event by November 8. The Moroccan
Ministry of Sport (MJS) responded by maintaining that it was still seeking that
the tournament be put back a year.
Following a meeting today (Tuesday)
in Cairo, the CAF Executive Committee said it had “taken note” of the response
from the MJS, adding that it will remove the tournament from Morocco due to its
commitment to keep the tournament in its scheduled dates.
The CAF said: “The Organising
Committee of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations will later apply the statutory
provisions that are required due to a breach of the Royal Moroccan Football
Federation regulatory and contractual provisions, including those set out in
the Host Association Agreement signed between CAF and the Royal Moroccan
Football Federation in April 2014.”
It added: “Accordingly, and
following the refusal of the Moroccan party, the Executive Committee has
decided that the national team of Morocco is automatically disqualified and
will not take part in the 30th edition of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations in
2015.”
Moroccan authorities had been
seeking a postponement of the event due to the outbreak of Ebola, which has so
far claimed almost 5,000 lives – mostly in West Africa. The CAF last week
outlined its position in a six-point plan. The CAF said that the World Health
Organisation (WHO) in August enforced an order that suspended all CAF
competition in countries most affected by Ebola in order to slow the spread of
the virus. The CAF also noted that the WHO has at no stage recommended that the
national team tournament be suspended due to the outbreak.
In addition, the CAF pointed out
that Ebola-free Morocco will stage the Fifa Club World Cup competition just
weeks before it is due to host the Cup of Nations. Fifa, the sport’s global
governing body, has so far made no suggestion that it will postpone the
tournament due to the outbreak of the virus.
The CAF now faces the difficult task
of reassigning its event at short notice. South Africa, along with six other
African countries, were said to have been approached by CAF to stage the
tournament should Morocco withdraw its hosting rights.
Ghana yesterday (Monday) became the
latest country to state it cannot step in, while South Africa, Egypt, Sudan and
Ghana have all indicated they are unwilling to replace Morocco, partly because
of Ebola. Nigeria and Angola have also been linked as possible replacement
destinations for the tournament.
