The Egypt Football Association (EFA) has made a dramatic U-turn and say they will surely bid to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations despite previously ruling itself out.
Egypt was considered along with South Africa and Morocco as the favorite to host the 24 teams 2019 AFCON after CAF stripped Cameroon off the hosting right, but only eight days back, Egypt Football Association said they aren’t prepared to replace Cameroon as hosts.
However, the meeting between EFA president Hany Abo Rida and his Confederation of African Football (Caf) counterpart Ahmad had led to the sudden change of mind.
“We’re preparing a file to send to Caf and we’re waiting for formal approval from the government,” EFA’s Ahmed Megahed told reporters.
Megahed added that Egypt will host the tournament better than anyone else on the continent.
“We have good facilities (and) none of the other African countries can be ready in this short time,” he explained.
“We have stadiums in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said.”
Meanwhile, Egypt’s north African neighbor Morocco announced are not running to host the finals.
Interested countries have until Friday to submit an official bid for the 2019 tournament which will be the first to have 24 teams, rather than 16, and be held in June/July, in place of its traditional January/February period.
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