Egypt will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations,
the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has
announced. Egypt beat South Africa, the only
other nation to bid, by 16 votes to one with one
abstention at a Caf executive committee vote in
Senegal.
Original host nation Cameroon was stripped of
staging duties in November because of slow
preparations. Egypt has just six months to
prepare for the expanded 24-team finals, which
kick off in June.
It will be the fifth time Egypt, which won the
tournament when it last hosted in 2006, has
staged the tournament. “I want to thank the (Caf)
Executive Committee for the trust, and I thank
the government for this support,” said Egypt FA
(EFA) president Hany Abu Rida.
“We organised the tournament on 2006 and that
make us against a challenge to make better and
better, we are ready for this honour.” “The
guarantee from government helped us to win
against South Africa and that will help us to
make a good tournament,” added Ahmed
Shobair, vice-president of Egypt’s FA.
“The fans will be back again in the stadiums,
which will be full in the tournament I promise.”
Egypt will use eight stadiums during the
tournament, hosting in five different cities:
Alexandria, Ismailia, Port Said, Suez and the
capital Cairo.
Caf had originally planned to name the new
hosts on Wednesday 9 January. Since stripping
Cameroon of this year’s event, Caf has offered
the country the chance to stage the finals in two
years’ time, which has meant that the original
hosts for both the 2021 and 2023 finals have
been asked to delay their tournaments.
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