CMR breaks 42 years spell to host AFCON 2019

Cameroon has finally won the bid to host the 2019 edition of the African Cup of Nations.

The country sprung a surprise on Saturday, September 20, in Addis Ababa, when the Confederation of African Football, CAF, Organisation Executive Committee met to vet the bidders of the 2019 tournament.

Cameroon succeeded to topple four other countries; Ivory Coast, Guinea, Algeria and Zambia that were also in contention to host the greatest African football bonanza.

Cameroon expressed her interest to host the tourney 42 years after it lastly hosted the competition in 1972.

Speaking after CAF President Isa Hayatou has pronounced Cameroon as the host country for the 2019 edition of the AFCON Games, the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Adoum Garoua said,” "It's been 42 years since we last hosted the tournament, so you can imagine our feelings.

Winning the bid came at a time when we are not only carrying out reconstruction within our national team, but all aspects of Cameroonian football." Adoum Garoua asserted.

According to the Sports Minister, after winning the bid, the country will construct seven more stadiums and carry out renovation work in the eight existing ones, some of which will host the matches and others will be used for training.

Meanwhile, Ivory Coast and Guinea were given the right to host the 2021, 2023 editions respectively.

Ivory Coast hosted the tournament in 1984 when the Nations Cup was half the size of its current 16 team format, but Guinea has never hosted the event. Algeria and Zambia missed out, but the Algerians might be asked to take over from Libya as hosts of the 2017 event. Libya last month stepped down as hosts because of the civil strife in the country.

According to the CAF Media Officer, Cameroonian born Junior Binyam, the decision for the hosting of the 2017 event will be known when the Organisation Executive Committee of CAF will meet in Morocco in January 2015. New Stadia As Baits For Host Cameroon's bid was centred on four venues in Bafoussam, Douala, Garoua and Yaounde.

The Ivorians planned to use five cities; Abidjan, Bouake, Korhogo, San Pedro and the capital Yamoussoukro. While Guinea's bid promised to use Conakry, Kankan, Labe and Nzerekore as venues. But the country is currently banned from hosting any international football tournament by CAF because of the Ebola outbreak in the country.