Trio bid for 2018 Chan

What you need to know:

  • Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Morocco have officially expressed interest in hosting the 2018 African Nations Championship (Chan) following Caf’s decision to strip Kenya of the hosting rights on September 23.
  • The three countries beat the October 30th deadline for submission of bids, and are awaiting a decision from the Confederation of African Football’s Executive Committee expected to be made public on Monday next week.
  • “At the end of the deadline for submission of applications on Saturday, 30 September 2017 at 23:59, three federations had submitted their bids to the General Secretariat of the Confederation Africaine de Football for the organisation of the 2018 Total African Nations Championship. Namely, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Morocco,” a communique from Caf released on Sunday evening read in part.

Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Morocco have officially expressed interest in hosting the 2018 African Nations Championship (Chan) following Caf’s decision to strip Kenya of the hosting rights on September 23.

The three countries beat the October 30th deadline for submission of bids, and are awaiting a decision from the Confederation of African Football’s Executive Committee expected to be made public on Monday next week.

“At the end of the deadline for submission of applications on Saturday, 30 September 2017 at 23:59, three federations had submitted their bids to the General Secretariat of the Confederation Africaine de Football for the organisation of the 2018 Total African Nations Championship. Namely, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Morocco,” a communique from Caf released on Sunday evening read in part.

Kenya had been selected as hosts of the 16-team tournament in 2014, but failed to convince the African football chiefs of their capability to host the competition.

After three inspection visits held in Kenya this year, the Caf Executive Committee held a meeting in Ghana on September 23 where they made the damning announcement.

Caf president Ahmad Ahmad declared Kenya unfit to host the continental second tier competition due to lack of the requisite stadium facilities in the country, untruthfulness on the part of government and sports leaders, as well as the hot political climate currently gripping the country.

A week-long bidding commenced on that particular day and due to the strict timelines, Caf stated that it would complete the process of selecting a new host country for the tournament within 15 days.

The qualification process of the tournament has already ended, with 15 nations having qualified so far.

Republic of Congo, Libya, Morocco, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Namibia have all qualified for the tournament that is scheduled to take place between January 11 and February 2.

Total Chan is a competition that brings together 16 national teams exclusively for home-based players.