It’s AFCON 2017, not 2015

President John Dramani Mahama may just have drilled the final nail in the coffin of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2015) tournament, saying the government had not taken a decision to bail out the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over its flagship tournament, following strong signals by Morocco to withdraw as the host nation due to concerns over the deadly Ebola disease.

Instead, he stressed that Ghana was more interested in hosting the 2017 tournament for which the country had already presented a formal bid to CAF.

The President, who is on a working visit to the United Kingdom, told the media in London that no firm decision had been taken on the tournament and that the government would critically weigh the options before arriving at any decision on whether or not to host AFCON.

“We will take the best interest of Ghanaians at heart. As President, I don’t want to see Ebola spread to my country and so if Morocco expresses concern about the Ebola disease, for which they want postponement, we are going to look at that carefully before we take a decision on whether to host AFCON or not,” Mr Mahama said.

Last week CAF wrote to the ministry requesting whether Ghana was ready to step in at the 11th hour, following which the  sector minister, Mahama Ayariga, suggested that the country was ready to rescue AFCON 2015. 

His comments immediately sparked outrage by a cross-section of Ghanaians, including professional bodies, such as the Ghana Medical Association and civil society groupings such as the Christan Council and OccupyGhana, who had vowed to resist fiercely any attempt by government to host the tournament, noting with concern the potential dangers the country would be exposing itself to in respect of the deadly Eblola virus.

South Africa, which hosted the tournament last year, turned down CAF’s request to consider hosting AFCON 2015 as it feared it could expose the country to the dreaded disease which has already claimed almost 5,000 lives in three West African countries.

However, Mr Ayariga last Monday sought to clarify his position on AFCON 2015, saying he only used a diplomatic language in response to CAF’s request which was misinterpreted to suggest that the government had agreed to host the tournament, writes Kwame Larweh.

 “When CAF requested us to be on the alert should Morocco pull out, we couldn’t reject it outright, we must be diplomatic, after all we are bidding for 2017 and we need to be tactful in our response”, he told the Graphic Sports on the sidelines of the launch last Monday of the second ‘Ghana’s Fastest Human Under 18’ at the Accra Stadium.

According to the minister, in order to engender goodwill in CAF towards Ghana’s bid for AFCON 2017, the ministry responded that it was on standby to consider CAF’s request.

“My affirmative response to CAF’s request was diplomatic and strategic, to secure empathy in our 2017 bid”, said Mr Ayariga who added that he was fully conscious of the dangers posed by the Ebola scourge and the government would not rush into rescuing a tournament that would expose Ghanaians to risks.