Morocco request to postpone African Cup of Nations due to Ebola fears
Next year's African Nations Cup has been thrown into doubt after hosts Morocco requested a postponement of at least a year due to the continuing Ebola epidemic in west Africa.
The Moroccan Ministry Of Sport (MJS) failed to meet a Nov. 8 deadline set by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to confirm it will host the tournament which is due to take place in January. Instead the MJS issued a lengthy statement on its Facebook page in which it warned of the "adverse and uncontrollable consequences" that could result from its hosting of the event at the present time.
Morocco had previously requested a postponement of the tournament due to the Ebola virus, but CAF refused the request and set the Nov. 8 deadline, also inviting bids from any countries wishing to step in as replacement hosts. CAF is due to respond to Morocco's request at an executive committee meeting in Cairo next week.
The MJS statement read: "Because of the occurrence of a force majeure, namely the risk of the pandemic Ebola virus and the adverse and uncontrollable consequences that could result... Morocco is making the request to postpone the African Nations Cup 2015-2016."
The statement added: "With no other nation having taken the opportunity to take over hosting rights from Morocco, CAF officials face the prospect of agreeing to Morocco's demands to delay the tournament until 2016, or cancel it at great financial cost."
Ghana and South Africa have both been approached over staging the showpiece, but neither country has expressed an interested in doing so. Morocco's refusal could see the nation handed sanctions in the form of a suspension from future tournaments, despite offering to host the AFCON in 2017 as way of compensating for their late withdrawal.
Goal.com's Lolade Adewuyi contributed to this report.
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