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While lots of football analysts and sources were convinced that Morocco had already indicated its willingness by filing the bid for the CAN 2019, Morocco’s Minister of Sports suddenly announced that the Kingdom will not be hosting the tournament any longer.
The entire world including the almighty CAF is expecting Morocco to host the tournament or at least one of the countries within the North African block will do so. Unfortunately, this is not the case to the chagrin of CAF and especially the teeming Moroccan fans and the business men, who have already positioned themselves for the boom in economic activities, if the tournament is going to be held in their soil.
This is a classic example of what a “bombshell” is, dropped on the laps of CAF to say the least. No doubt this unpleasant news will put the football governing body into confusion. Because after the real-fake candidacy of the Congo and Gabon, a rumor that was quickly dispelled by both countries, coupled with Cameroons lukewarm attitude towards upgrading its existing structures, CAF at the moment truly and really needs a savior.
The minister tried to console the disappointed “Atlas Lions” (Morocco’s National Team) and its teeming football fans with a lame story that the country have successfully gotten a spot during the qualifiers and as such, Morocco will be ably represented whether it is held in its home soil or not.
"Savior" South Africa sent a letter of intent
Interestingly, a huge surprise came out of the blues especially for those who asserted more or less openly that Morocco, whose influence in Africa continues to wax stronger, had weighed all its weights on CAF to withdraw the hosting rights from Cameroon. The truth is that that assertion was not entirely wrong, because in one of the organizations executive committee meetings, it was reported that the North African Football Union(UNAF), of which Morocco is a member, sent a letter to CAF asking questions on the situation in Cameroon.
People have been asking questions why Morocco suddenly withdrew its bid to host the tournament. The answer to that is not far from the Rumors that Morocco had to withdraw its intention to host the CAN 2019 tournament because a fellow powerful North African Country, Egypt expressed its unwillingness to support Morocco if it goes ahead with the bid. It is a common knowledge that Egypt is a force to reckon with in Africa, as such there is every chance that other countries in the block may not want to support a country that Egypt’s body language is apparently against.
With less than six months to go, CAF had earlier on proposed 9th January, 2019 as the date for the announcement of the successful country in Africa to replace Cameroon. It is a good thing that the South African block had put forward a bid to host the tournament. However, with the Moroccan experience, one cannot be certain that it will be surely awarded to South Africa at the end of the day. The wise thing to do is to keep ones fingers crossed.
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