Gabon relishes AFCON hosting victory

The announcement has been greeted with joy by Gabonese from across the board.

Gabon was named on Wednesday as the hosts of the next African Nations Cup finals in 2017. They beat rival bids from Algeria and Ghana in a vote by the Confederation of African Football's (CAF) executive committee at a meeting in Cairo.

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.

The Gabonese delegation present in the hall went wild with joy when CAF president, Issa Hayatou read the announcement, hugging and congratulating each other heartily. Shortly afterwards, the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Odimba, on his tweeter account, thanked CAF for having confidence in Gabon and said it was a success for Gabon and an immense joy for the African youths. “2017 AFCON is luck.

It will enable us to intensify the diversification of the economy and boost the construction and service delivery sectors,” he said. The President of the Gabonese football federation, Pierre Alain Mounguegui, said they are going to set to work to make the 2017 AFCON a success. The tournament was top of the all the major tabloids in the Gabon yesterday.

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, in addition to Port Gentil and Oyem where authorities say the stadiums will be ready in 14 months, Gabon Football Federation officials said.

All three candidate countries made presentations to the CAF executive committee on Wednesday before the ballot was taken. CAF did not make details of the voting immediately available. CAF had already designated the hosts of the 2019 (Cameroon), 2021 (Ivory Coast) and 2023 finals (Guinea).

Central Africa has suddenly become a hub for the AFCON as three successive editions of the tournaments will take place in the sub region. After Equatorial Guinea in 2015, it will be the turn of Gabon to host the competition in 2017 before passing over the relay baton to Cameroon for the 2019 edition.

It would be recalled that the tournament took place in the central African region in 2012 when it was co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and made only a brief stopover in South Africa in 2013 before returning to the region in 2015.