Cameroon is deprived of the right to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations

ACCRA (Reuters) – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) said Friday it deprived Cameroon of the right to host the 2019 African Nations Cup.

The African Union has confirmed this decision unanimously at the conclusion of an Executive Committee meeting in Accra.

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Morocco is the best candidate for the 24-team tournament which runs from June 15 to July 13.

A member of the AU Executive Committee told Reuters that the new host country was due to be announced before the end of the year.

Cameroon's ability to host the finals became questionable when the African Football Confederation announced last July that the competition would include eight more teams and that countries capable of organizing a world tournament with appropriate facilities and infrastructure would organize the demonstration.

Morocco immediately announced that it was ready to replace Cameroon, which marked the beginning of a year and a half of allegations that the African Union was planning to strip Cameroon of its host country and concede it to the North African country.

The African Union has sent several inspection teams to Cameroon to monitor the evolution of the establishment of five proposed stadiums.

When Ahmed Ahmed, president of the African Union, went to Cameroon in October, President Paul Biya told reporters that "the African Union has no alternative plan and do not even consider withdrawing the right to host in Cameroon ".

But last week, he criticized Cameroon's inability to organize the affairs of its national football federation, which has been run by a FIFA commission for more than a year, given the difficulties encountered in adopt a new charter and elect a new president.

The Nations Cup next year will be the first tournament to be modified from the beginning of the year to the summer in order to end the long conflict between clubs and nations over the possibility for players to participate in the final .

The tournament will be the fourth consecutive Nations Cup competition modified by its host.

The 2013 finals were scheduled in Libya but the security situation forced the organizers to move them to South Africa.

The African Union withdrew the right to host Morocco in 2015 after the Arab country had expressed concern that the Ebola virus would spread to foreign supporters and Equatorial Guinea had only hosted it six months before launch.

The 2017 finals were originally scheduled for South Africa and were later transferred to Libya, which could not accommodate them before traveling to Gabon.

(Reuters)