Ivory Coast rules out co-hosting the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations

 

Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara pointed out that his country has just hosted a successful Francophone Games

The President of Ivory Coast Alassane Ouattara says his country will not need to co-host the expanded Africa cup of Nations finals in 2021.
He said the country has the capability to host 24 teams rather than 16 stipulated in its original bid.
Ouattara was talking during an official visit to Sierra Leone.
"The reality is that we go by the decision made to extend the number of teams to participate at Afcon and Ivory Coast has the infrastructure," he said.
"A few days ago we hosted the Francophone games with 4,000 athletes participating from 54 countries.

Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara says his nation will be ready to host the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations without having to co-host the expanded tournament.
"It ended on Sunday with the Vice President of Ivory Coast giving medals to those who won.
"So Ivory Coast has the infrastructure and in any case we are going to continue between now and 2021 to build the necessary infrastructure to host the finals."
Ivory Coast were originally given the rights to host a 16-team event but in July the Confederation of African Football decided to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24.
The tournament has also been from it's traditional dates of January and February to later in the year in the months of June and July.
The Chairman of the Caf's Nations Cup organising committee Amaju Pinnick told BBC Sport last week that their decision to increase the teams at the continent's biennial event is to try to encourage countries in a particular region to co-host future Afcon finals.

Comments

Post a Comment

Africa Cup of Nations: Caf considers summer move

Image
Caf president Ahmad Ahmad opens the two-day symposium on the future of the continental game The Africa Cup of Nations could be moved to the summer as part of changes being discussed by the continent's ruling body. The Nations Cup's timing in January and February has long angered clubs in Europe, where many Africans play. The biennial finals could also be boosted from 16 teams to 24. "That is the first thing to talk about - we can't get away from it," said Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad Ahmad. We are here for a historic chapter and to effect great changes. These are decisions that will determine the future of our game Caf president Ahmad "We have already had a lot of suggestions," the Malagasy said in his opening address at a two-day symposium on the continental game's future in Morocco. An unprecedented number of players turned down call-ups for this year's tournament in Gabon to stay with their clubs....
Read more

Premier League pre-season fixtures: Clubs try to balance fitness & finance

Image
Defending champions Chelsea head to China and Singapore Premier League clubs are aiming to strike the perfect balance between fitness and finance during their pre-season tours. Australia, China and the United States are among the destinations for more than 100 fixtures this summer. The 20 top-flight sides will also travel within Europe as they seek to combine the best pre-season training with brand promotion around the world. The 25th Premier League season kicks off on 11 August. The clubs will be looking to pick up affluent sponsors Rob Wilson Football finance expert, Sheffield Hallam Univesity It is a tough balancing act between getting the players ready for that new campaign and exploiting sponsorship opportunities, says football finance expert Rob Wilson. "Last year, China seemed to be the significant market and a lot of teams focused on that - but the North American market is the one the teams have been looking at this summer, largely because of spo...
Read more

Senegal's Sadio Mane to miss Liverpool's Asia trip

Image
  Sadio Mane picked up a knee injury playing for Liverpool against local rivals Everton in April Sadio Mane will not travel to Hong Kong with Liverpool as he continues to recover from a knee operation. The Senegal international has begun light training with the team after missing the end of last season. Liverpool travel to Hong Kong for the pre-season Premier League Asia Trophy. "It makes no sense to take him to Asia because he needs to then do the first steps in team training," he told the club's website. "We will see how we can do it; maybe [some of] the U23s will be here, so when he can start this [training] then we can use this opportunity, but we have to wait. "He is really, really good. He is close; he is closing on coming back to team training. "I think he is getting better, but it is how it is after a long time - you need to build a little bit of muscle again in the quad and thigh, which is important. "There is no risk ...
Read more