Dylan Bettencourt
The military junta of Guinea has confirmed they will release funds to help the nation prepare to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
The funds are to fast-track preparations to host the tournament after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) visited the nation to monitor the progress of staging the continental tournament.
The West African country has been under military rule since last year. This has raised security concerns about hosting an event such as Afcon, with Nigeria offering to replace Guinea as hosts.
But the head of Guinea’s military government, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said hosting the tournament was of “national and priority interest”.
Any spending needed for hosting the tournament would serve “as a matter of urgency”, he said on state television.
The military also confirmed that any land needed for the event will fall in the public interest category and any property transactions not related to the tournament will be banned on those sites.
As it stands, Guinea lacks sporting and transport infrastructure to host the 24-team tournament by 2025.
Guinea was initially scheduled to host the tournament in 2023, but it was postponed by two years, following an organising nations reshuffle in 2019.
After the military coup last September, where President Alpha Condé was kicked out of office, Doumbouya said the country would return to civilian rule after a 39-month period.
“This Africa Cup of Nations is for Guinea,” the country’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Lansana Bea Diallo, said earlier this month.
“So, I would like to tell all those who are candidates to position themselves for 2027, 2029 or 2031. 2025 is for Guinea.”
Reports suggested that the tournament would be taken away from Guinea but a CAF official confirmed that those discussions had not taken place.
Image source: @ForeignPolicy
