Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe announced in Conakry Friday that Guinea has been stripped of hosting the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations because of its poor preparedness.
“We are not ready as of yet in Guinea… and we should reopen the process” of allowing prospective host countries to bid, Motsepe while addressing pressmen.
Motsepe said CAF’s decision was in fact taken in July. “I had insisted that that message should not go public — I should come personally here”, he said.
CAF held an executive committee meeting on Saturday to deliberate on ways out of the major setback for the continent’s premier sporting event.
In 2014, CAF had awarded the 2019 tournament to Cameroon, the 2021 event to Ivory Coast and the 2023 edition to Guinea.
Then Egypt replaced Cameroon for 2019 with CAF shifting the calendar, awarding the 2021 edition to Cameroon, which was then held this year, and the 2023 edition to Ivory Coast.
Guinea had then agreed to organise the 2025 edition.
This is also a severe blow to Guinea. Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who came to power in a coup in September 2021, had expressed his firm intention to honour the commitment to hosting.
Motsepe is due to hold a press conference in Algiers on Saturday after a meeting of CAF’s executive committee.
In March, Doumbouya replaced the old organising committee, one of whose members had publicly expressed doubts about the feasibility of the project.