Caf to review how hosts were chosen for the next three Nations Cups
Phillip Chiyangwa, vice president of Caf's Africa Cup Of Nations committee, recently completed a visit to Zambia |
Phillip Chiyangwa, vice president
of the Confederation of African Football's (Caf) Africa Cup of Nations
committee, says Zambia may yet be given an opportunity to bid to host
the 2021 Nations Cup.
Chiyangwa said Caf was reviewing the manner
in which the 2019, 2021 and 2023 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments were
awarded to West Africa by the previous Caf administration.
Chiyangwa, who is also head of the Cosafa region (Council of Southern African FA's) spoke of his concerns in April and wants the tournaments to be more widespread.
"I am the giver and taker of competitions," Phillip Chiyangwa said during a tour of Zambia last week.
As
things currently stand, the 2019 edition will be held in Cameroon while
Ivory Coast is set to stage the 2021 tournament and Guinea will be
hosts in 2023.
That means the west of the continent would have
staged Africa's showpiece event for five consecutive tournaments, from
2015 - when Equatorial Guinea stepped in for Morocco - to 2023.
"I
am currently reviewing what happened in the past, there may be
possibilities in 2021 going forward, but the reason why I want to be
ready with my region is to know which country wants what.
"If an opportunity arises there is no need for me to do last minute searches," Chiyangwa said.
Zambia FA president Andrew Kamanga and Caf's Phillip Chiyangwa meeting in Zambia last week. |
"Our review process is that we go to those countries that bid for those competitions."
Chiyangwa
said that the change at Caf was driven by a sense of unfairness in the
manner tournaments were awarded to hosts under its former president Issa
Hayatou.
"Our contestation on Hayatou to continue in office was the unfair awarding of tournaments to one region," he said.
"Other
regions were suffering, if you look at the background of the Issa
Hayatou fall, it arises out of the fact that most of the competitions
were being awarded to West Africa, not North Africa, not even Central
Africa and not even Southern Africa," he added.
"So the chance
you have - should in our investigations a decision be arrived at to
nullify the other competitions - you as Zambia, if you are ready, you
may have an opportunity that arises in 2021."
BBC
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