2018 Women’s AFCON: Ghana stripped of hosting rights

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has stripped Ghana of the hosting rights for the Women’s AFCON scheduled for later this year. 

According to CAF, the venues earmarked for the competition are way behind schedule, and have taken the bold decision to strip the hosting rights off Ghana, with less than 3 months to the start of the competition.

CAF President Ahmad Ahmad however remains confident that a new host will be announced in September.

“We are engaging several countries and should be able to announce a host during the CAF Extraordinary General Assembly in Egypt next month,” Ahmad told KweséESPN.

Ghana won the rights to host the competition back in 2016, after being the sole candidate bidding to host the competition.

The Cape Coast and Accra Stadia were selected as the host stadia for the tournament by the Local Organizing Committee, but renovation works at the grounds have stalled.

The LOC, last month, asked CAF to consider alternative host cities for the tournament, due to the slow progress of work at the Accra Sports Stadium, after CAF’s inspection team was unhappy by the progress of work after their last visit to the country. 

The 2018 Women’s AFCON will also serve as the qualifier to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, with the top three countries qualifying  for the competition in France.

This means Ghana’s Black Queens are also set to miss out on a place at the global showpiece, as their place at the tournament will be taken by the new hosts, who will join Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, South Africa, Zambia, Mali and Nigeria who have already qualified.

By:Daniel Koranteng/citinewsroom.com/Ghana

Source: citifmonline.com