The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has confirmed that Egypt will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
It comes after Cameroon was controversially stripped of the tournament because of inadequate preparations.
Egypt FA (EFA) president Hany Abu Rida commented: “I want to thank the (Caf) Executive Committee for the trust, and I thank the government for this support.
“We organised the tournament on 2006 and that make us against a challenge to make better and better, we are ready for this honour.”
Ahmed Shobair, vice-president of Egypt’s FA also detailed: “The guarantee from government helped us to win against South Africa and that will help us to make a good tournament.
“The fans will be back again in the stadiums, which will be full in the tournament I promise.”
The tournament, which commences in June marks the first since its expansion to 24 teams. However, given Egypt successfully hosted the competition in 2006 the country is regarded as a safe choice and stable choice by the Caf.
In further good news for Egypt, the country’s iconic winger, Mohamed Salah was named African Footballer of the Year for a second successive year. Beating Liverpool teammate, Sadio Mané and fellow Premier League star, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the prize.
The decision to strip Cameroon has caused much disruption amongst African football, with the country being offered the opportunity to host the tournament in either 2021 or 2023, meaning both the Ivory Coast and Guinea have been asked to delay to wait a further two years before they were scheduled to host.
Guinea has agreed to the delay from 2023 to 2025, whereas Ivory Coast was more reluctant to move its 2021 tournament, outlining plans to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Expressing how much the award means, the Liverpool winger stated: “This award is very big for me, I love it because I saw it when I was young and I always had a dream to win it one day,” Salah said. “I’m proud to win it twice, I must thank my family and my teammates, and I dedicate this award to my country, Egypt.”
