Saturday, April 11th, 2015
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang (right) and Gabon teammates
Gabon hammered on their legacy of hosting in 2012 to win the rights to host Afcon 2017, supersport.com sources say.
The Central African nation was chosen to host the 2017 event after co-hosting in 2012. The decision was announced by the Confederation of African Football [Caf] on Wednesday.
They beat rival bids from Algeria and Ghana in a vote by the Caf executive committee at a meeting in Cairo. Caf did not make details of the voting immediately available.
Caf has already designated the hosts of the 2019 (Cameroon), 2021 (Ivory Coast) and 2023 finals (Guinea).
VENUES
Gabon will use four venues for the 16-team tournament, set for January 2017.
They will be Libreville and Franceville, which were used in 2012, plus Port Gentil and Oyem where the stadiums will be ready in 14 months, Gabon Football Federation officials said.
Gabon replaces war-torn Libya, who withdrew last year as 2017 hosts because of the civil conflict raging in the country.
It will be the second time that the country will stage the finals after co-hosting the 2012 edition with neighbours Equatorial Guinea.
All three candidate countries made presentations to the Caf executive committee on Wednesday before the ballot was taken.
THE POLITICS
ALGERIA: Their reps had been busy parrying subliminal messages from Ghana and Gabon that Algeria is not a safe place. But they were adamant the place is ‘safe.’ The North Africans came very prepared with a glitzy looking video bid.
GHANA: Bid looked at reputation of how accessible the country is among the three bidders, the legacy of 2008, and infrastructural availability.
GABON: Bid relied heavily on legacy of 2012. Promised better experience, reminding delegates of how good last time was.
“When in 2015 everyone else ran away from hosting the Afcon because Morocco pulled out, Gabon supported Caf all the way. They gave buses, logistics and even monetary support,” a Caf source says.
It has emerged that Ghana were actually second-best all along, also because the Caf bigwigs frowned on the way the Ghanaian public heavily hit against their country’s tentative quest to host 2015.
And Algeria?
“In the final hours of the day, it emerged that [Algeria FA boss] Mohamed Raouroua is being seen as a potential rival to Issa Hayatou later, and he the boss couldn’t have that,” our source says.
Supersport