As the drama around the 2015 African Cup of Nations continues in Africa, CAF have announced that Morocco, who earlier confirmed the withdrawal of their hosting rights of the event, will be disqualified from the 2015 tournament. The Confederation of African Football also announced that it will go ahead with the tournament on the pre-agreed dates: January 17th to February 8th.
CAF announced the updates after an executive committee meeting today in Cairo after it convened to discuss the process of selecting a new host for the tournament which has held without fail since 1957.
CAF also confirmed that the remaining matches of the AFCON qualifying series will go ahead as scheduled. A statement on CAF’s website read:
“The Executive Committee confirms the continuation of qualifiers match-days 5 & 6, which will be held during the month (14/15 November and 19 November), paving the way for the qualification of the 15 teams that will be joining the team of the host country.”
On its decision to disqualify the hosts, Morocco, CAF stated that it might review even more sanctions applicable.
“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.”
“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,” the statement read.
CAF also announced, via the statement, that it will announce the new hosts of AFCON 2015 shortly and also hinted that it has received applications from some national associations who are interested in hosting the tournament as Morocco’s replacements.
“The Executive Committee took note of receipt by 10 November, 2014 of some applications of national associations confirming their desire to host the 2015 competition on the dates agreed. These applications are currently under review, and the Executive Committee will finalize the selection of the successful National Association shortly and confirm the place and date of the draw of the final tournament at the same time.”
This follows CAF insistence that it will not be postponing or cancelling the tournament while citing the need to preserve the proud heritage of the event and Ventures Africa earlier stated other reasons why CAF will find it difficult to announce a postponement or outright cancellation of the tournament.
CAF is expected to announce the new hosts of the 2015 African Cup of Nations soon as the tournament kicks off in two months.
