Morocco confident of beating Nigeria, Algeria and others to 2025 AFCON bid
Moroccan officials remain confident the North African country can launch a strong bid to replace Guinea as hosts of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Nigeriasoccernet.com reports.
Morocco, who last hosted the tournament in 1988, were due to stage it again in 2015 but withdrew because of fears over an Ebola outbreak.
But having successfully hosted both the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and the Club World Cup in the past 12 months, the Atlas Lions believe they can see off neighbours and rivals Algeria in the bidding process.
“Morocco is ready,” top Moroccan official Hassan Kharbouch told BBC Sport Africa via This Daily.
“We just organised a successful Club World Cup after our previous successes of hosting this same tournament in 2013 and 2014.”
“We’ve also staged the Under-17 and Under-23 Nations Cups and as hosts we delivered record African attendances for the Women’s Cup of Nations in Rabat and Casablanca in 2022,” Kharbouch continued.
“We have all the facilities and logistics to organise the African Cup of Nations, not only in Rabat and Casablanca but also in Tangier, Oujda, Fez, Marrakech and Agadir, each venue boasting of a number of training sites.”
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe confirmed last month that Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Zambia and a joint Benin-Nigeria bid are in the running to replace Guinea as hosts of the 2025 event.
The West African nation were stripped of the 24-team event in October because of a lack of suitably advancing infrastructure and facilities.
By Olujimi Dare Ogun
Comments
This article has 0 comment(s) , give your comment