Morocco have been confirmed new hosts of the 2018 African Nations Championship (Chan), according to reliable Footy-Ghana.com sources.
The Emergency Committee of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) took the decision to pick the North Africans over Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia at its meeting in Lagos on Saturday.
In September, Caf decided to withdraw the hosting rights from Kenya due to delay in work on the selected venues for the competition. A report by the inspection team of the African football governing body had indicated to the Executive Committee that only two of the venues were nearly ready, three months to the Chan.
Only the three showed interest in becoming the new hosts of the 2018 Chan which has now be awarded Morocco. The kingdom will be organizing the competition for the first time in its history.
Footy-Ghana.com understands Morocco have designated the stadiums in Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier to host the matches of the 5th edition of the Chan which will take place from January 12th to February 4th.
- Stade Casablanca (80,000 capacity)
- Stade de Marrakech (45,240 capacity)
- Stade Adrar de Agadir (45,480 capacity)
- Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier (45,000 capacity)
The new hosts, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia have all secured slots to participate in the 16-team competition specialized for domestically based players after rigorous rounds of qualifiers.
Kenya had completed the line-up as the host nation – but after being stripped of the rights, they forfeit the position.
Caf now has to determine a new country to replace the East Africans. This, Footy-Ghana understands, could be Egypt who were beaten by Morocco in the qualifiers.
Source: Footy-Ghana.com
