Zambia brace for late Saturday afternoon to know if they have won the right to host the 2019 AFCON.
On Friday, FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya including representatives from the four other contenders were all accorded a 30 minute final presentation of their respective bids before they were put to a vote at the 2014 CAF annual general meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Zambia is in a race for the 2019 tournament against Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Algeria and Cameroon.
But unlike Zambia, the other four nations have also hedged their bids for the 2021 tournament.
However, there is speculation that Zambia’s bid could be hit by a technicality after the Cosafa zone “unofficially exhausted” its hosting quota this decade when South Africa and Angola hosted the event in 2013 and 2010 respectively.
A Cameroon bid is highly favoured to win as West Africa have hosted the tournament once so far in 2012 when Equatorial Guinea and Gabon were joint hosts.
However, should a decision go against Zambia it would be very unfair for the Cosafa zone nations who have finally began to show their financial prowess to host the Africa Cup after years of domination by West and North Africa.
Moreover, the Cosafa zone did not host any AFCON tournament in the last decade that saw West Africa host three out of the five finals held between 2000 and 2008.
Ghana and Nigeria co-hosted the 2000 finals, Mali staged the 2002 event.
Ghana again made a successful solo bid for the 2008 after Tunisia and Egypt had hosted in the 2004 and 2006 AFCON’s respectively.
Zambia is seeking a second successful bid since 1988 when they withdrew as hosts due to financial problems.
…..fingers crossed…..thou in my opinion we are 6 out of 10 favourite to win the bid same tally with Guinea ….7/10 for Ivory Coast and 8/10 for Algeria and Cameron..
We have too many ‘negatives’….including the inadequate facilities and most important failure to host all African games in 2011 and AFCON in 1988 after winning the bids….
you are right,the only best advantage we have is that most west african countries are firstly in danger of possible ebola outbreak unlike sothern ones,so like you scrutinised,fingers crossed!
you are right,the only best advantage we have is that most west african countries are firstly in danger of possible ebola outbreak unlike southern ones,so like you scrutinised,fingers crossed!
notu bansa twesu tubili coupled with the serious lack of accomodation and poor public transport? lets try again in about 15 years time.
figures tight, amatako pamo baane; tulewina
You are hell bent on hosting it yet we don’t have basic ICU facilities for road traffic victims ….Ministry of Sport and your FAZ can’t even charter a plane to fly the national team to Cape Verde on time and you want to host continental games and waste taxpayer’s money…really laughably!!
Cameroun won for 2019 bid