CAF/LOC Concludes Orange CHAN 2014 Host Cities Visits
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) sent a high level delegation led by Mr. Almamy Kabele Camara, the CAF 2nd Vice President and Chairman of CAF Organising Committee of CHAN, and accompanied by CAF Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Essam Ahmed, and CHAN 2014 CAF Event Director, Mr. Amr Fahmy to conduct host cities inspections for the 3rdEdition of the African Nations Championship (Orange CHAN 2014) which will take place at the 3 Host Cities; Cape Town, Mangaung (Bloemfontein), and Polokwane between 11 January and 1 February, 2014.
Accompanying the CAF delegation was the Local Organising Committee led by the CEO, Mr. Mvuzo Mbebe. The team conducted inspections at facilities and sites such as stadiums, training sites, and hotels, to determine the state of readiness and to confirm minimum requirements stipulated by CAF to host a tournament of this nature.
Addressing the joint CAF/LOC media conference held at the OR Tambo Southern Sun Hotel, Mr. Kabele Camara expressed his full satisfaction and confidence in the 3 cities and their readiness when he said: “I could not have expected anything less from South Africa and the 3 cities as your country has a proven track record in hosting successful international events. With 160 Days to go today, the LOC and the 3 host cities are already hard at work in ensuring that CHAN lives up to the same standard recently witnessed when the country hosted Orange AFCON 2013. We visited and conducted a detailed inspection of the competition areas in the stadium including training sites, media operations, hospitality areas, as well as team, referees, media and CAF hotels. Judging by the state of preparedness and readiness, I can assure you that these cities are preparing for an excitement football tournament that will once again make your country and the continent proud. I only have good news to report back to the CAF President, Mr. Issa Hayatou”.
The CEO of the LOC, said: “We are not going to let the success of Orange AFCON 2013 get into our heads and we are not taking anything for granted. We are applying the same formula we used during AFCON as well as the lessons learnt to make sure that Orange CHAN 2014 delivers in accordance with our objectives as well as CAF expectations. We are still going to return to the host cities for another round of visits as the LOC, at the end of August and again in November, together with CAF again. This is how serious we take this competition. We also share the same sentiments expressed by the CAF Vice President and Deputy Secretary General of CAF and we are pleased with what we have seen so far.”
CAF will conduct the official draw of the 16 teams on 16 September in Cairo. Only 12 countries have so far qualified; Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa (as host). There are still 4 more team to qualify: 2 teams from the Central Zone (Cameroon, Gabon, DR Congo) and 2 teams from the Southern Zone (Angola, Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe which will be finalised by 1 September 2013.