The ax fell, as feared for weeks: the Confederation of African Football (CAF) withdrew the organization of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) in 2025 from Guinea, which is not ready.
CAF President, South African Patrice Motsepe, traveled to Conakry to inform the ruling junta of a decision which, he later told the press, dates back to July. “Tomorrow, CAF will be asked to receive new applications because in the current state, the infrastructures and equipment are not adapted or ready for CAF to host (CAN) in 2025 in Guinea.“, he said. CAF is meeting its executive committee on Saturday.
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The President of CAF, Dr Patrice Motsepe, met this Friday the President of the Guinean transition, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya. He was accompanied by the Secretary General of CAF, Mr. Véron Mosengo-Omba.#CAF #TotalEnergiesAFCON— CAF Media (@CAF_Media) October 1, 2022
This is a new setback for the queen competition of king sport on the continent. In 2014, CAF awarded the next three CANs at once: 2019 to Cameroon, 2021 to Côte d’Ivoire and 2023 to Guinea. After the withdrawal in favor of Egypt from the organization of CAN 2019, CAF had shifted the calendar, awarding the next edition, in 2021, to Cameroon and that of 2023 to Côte d’Ivoire. Guinea had agreed to organize the 2025 edition.
It is also a severe blow to Guinea. Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who came to power by force in September 2021, had expressed his firm intention to honor the appointment.
The organization of the CAN had been described as “national interest”
The doubt, however, was never dispelled. Organizing this event was shaping up to be a major challenge for one of the poorest countries on the planet, which is sorely lacking in level infrastructure, whether in terms of sports equipment or transport. Road trips can be nightmarish. Guinea has a recent stadium in the capital and another dilapidated one likely to host such a competition, but none inside the country. Construction work to remedy this deficiency has barely begun.
Seizing the case head on, Colonel Doumbouya had appointed a new organizing committee in March, ousting the old team, one of whose members publicly expressed his doubts as to the feasibility of the project. At the end of August, a decree declaring the organization of CAN 2025 “of national and priority interest“It was the day before the arrival of a CAF assessment mission.
At the time, there were already reports of a decision taken by CAF in July to withdraw the organization from Guinea. The reasons why the doubt was not cleared until Friday are unclear. Guinean Minister of Sports Lansana Béa Diallo had reported that the CAF mission that had come in early September had suggested the possibility of a postponement to 2026 or 2027. But Colonel Doumbouya had ruled out this hypothesis and had pledged that the competition takes place in Guinea in 2025, he said.
“The CAN 2025, which had been attributed to Guinea, we are not ready (to welcome it) for the moment in Guinea, and we must reopen this process“, said Mr. Motsepe on Friday. The work begun by Guinea should encourage it to apply for the organization of competitions, he added without it clearly appearing to which he was referring.