The confederation of African Football, CAF, has asked South Africa to step in as hosts of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, after stripping Cameroon of hosting rights.
Danny Joordan, the president of South African football association, SAFA, disclosed this at the association’s annual general meeting on Sunday.
Joordan said that the security concerns and the infrastructure were among the reasons Cameroon was stripped of hosting rights.
According to him, a number of compliance conditions were not met by the west African Nation, adding that CAF had to make a decision to seek a different country to host the tournament.
“Cameroon has been stripped of rights to host after the infrastructure has been found not to be ready by June 2019 despite commendable efforts. It has been a huge and hard decision that CAF had to take,” a CAF executive committee member said.
Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal, Madagascar, Morocco, Mali, Algeria, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Tunisia, Egypt are some of the nations that have so far qualified for the 2019 AFCON tournament. Cameroon had also qualified as hosts.
South Africa last hosted the AFCON tournament in 2013, a tournament which ended with Nigeria’s Super Eagles emerging as the victors.
The 2019 AFCON will start in June next year.