Egypt and South Africa have submitted bids to replace Cameroon as host of next year’s African Cup of Nations, pitting north versus south in the rush to find a new venue for Africa’s top soccer tournament.
Egypt’s bid, announced by its soccer association to meet Friday’s deadline, was a surprise move by a country which wasn’t considered a contender.
South Africa’s bid, confirmed on Friday by South African Football Association spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi, puts Africa’s only World Cup host in line to help tournament organiser, Confederation of African Football, out again.
South Africa hosted the 2013 African Cup of Nations five years ago, standing in when Libya couldn’t hold that tournament.
Egypt has hosted four times, its last in 2006.
The Confederation of African Football has given countries until the end of Friday to submit bids for AFCON 2019, which was taken away from Cameroon last month because of poor preparations and violent insurgency in parts of that country.
CAF wants a new host in place by December 31, with the tournament in June and July looming.
Next year’s African championship is the first to be increased from 16 to 24 teams, a factor that placed additional strain on Cameroon.
The moves by Egypt and South Africa came after Morocco, once considered the front-runner to replace Cameroon, said this week it wouldn’t put itself forward as a candidate. Morocco had been widely touted as a replacement after it was a candidate to host the 2026 World Cup.
It lost out for the World Cup to a joint United States-Mexico-Canada bid.
CAF hasn’t confirmed if any other countries have submitted bids for next year’s African Cup.
Egypt said as recently as last month that it would not enter the race and compete with the expected bid from fellow North African nation Morocco.
But Morocco’s decision not to bid appears to have led to Egypt’s change of heart.
