Morocco reject withdrawal reports from hosting Nations Cup

On Thursday (16th October), officials from Morocco rejected the reports that suggest the North African were to withdraw from hosting the Africa  Cup of Nations as a result of the Ebola outbreak.

 

Morocco's minister of information has denied reports that his country has withdrawn as host of next year's African Cup of Nations because of the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

But Mustapha Khalfi Moroccan Information Minister  who is also the government spokesman, says Morocco still wants the tournament postponed, forcing a conflict with organise

"About postponing the organisation of the African Nations Cup that was due in Morocco in 2015, the health minister had clearly indicated that it had to do with the international health regulations. It means that it stems its legitimacy from the international regulations and also from the measures taken by a number of countries in such occasions and also from previous experiences that showed without any doubt the dangers of holding huge events that go hand in hand with serious health crisis." Khalfi said.

 El Hossein El Ouardi said that all is in place to make sure deadly virus does not enter Morocco

"In the first stage, we do our best before anything else to stop this disease and this virus from entering the country starting from the passengers boarding the plane and coming to Morocco. We check them with thermal cameras inside the planes without then knowing about it because there are checks at a distance. If there is a suspected case, we set up four laboratories in Morocco according to international standards so that we could do the checkups in no time." ~   El Hossein El Ouardi

 
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) insists the 17 January - 18 February event must go ahead as planned.

CAF has apparently reached out to at least two other countries to ask if they would step in at short-notice in the event that Morocco refuses to host on the original dates.

Ghana's sports minister said on his official Facebook page that his country had been approached.

CAF also asked South Africa to be on standby, according to a letter published in the South African media, after the country hosted a successful World Cup in 2010.