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Hope of Nigeria hosting the African Cup of Nations in 2013 has been dashed. Consequently, Nigeria will not be able to host the continental fiesta following the decision of the Confederation of African Football to allow a swap between Libya and South Africa for the 2013 and 2017 games.
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The Nigeria Football Federation last month challenged CAF to hand it the hosting rights to the 2013 games considering the ongoing civil war in Libya, since it was placed on standby by the continental body while announcing the hosting rights in 2006.
South Africa had made a separate arrangement with the Libyan federation to take charge of the games whiles Libya could then host the 2017 tournament instead.
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Even though CAF denied knowledge of the previous agreement between both countries, it announced yesterday that the swap will now take place.
The continental body also decided that Namibia would host the 2014 African Women’s Championship while Niger would host the 2015 CAF U-17 Championship. Madagascar was handed the 2017 U-17 Championship and Senegal the 2015 U-20 Championship.
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…NFF Disappointed
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Following the decision of CAF to hand South Africa the hosting right of the 2013 Nations Cup, football authorities in Nigeria have been expressing their displeasure. NFF General Secretary Musa Amadu was incensed, especially after Nigeria wrote to CAF last month when news of the arrangement first seeped out, to remind them of the existing decision. “We are deeply disappointed at this decision by CAF,” Amadu told KickOffNigeria.com. “It is total disrespect to Nigeria. When we heard about this so-called arrangement last month, we wrote to CAF reminding them that they had made us standby hosts, and if Libya were unable to host, then it should be offered to us first. The Secretary General assured us at the time that no decision had been reached, and he would pass the letter on to the Executive Committee. But the Executive Committee is now telling us our letter came late. The question is did we even need to write to them to remind them of a decision that the same Executive Committee took?”
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CAF Executive Committee decided to approve an arrangement between South Africa, hosts of the 2017 tournament, and Libya, where the North Africans would swap places with South Africa. Libya could not host the tournament as a result of the ongoing security issues in the country.
Nigeria, designated in 2006 as standby hosts for three African Nations Cup tournaments between 2010 and 2014 (now pushed back to 2013), was completely ignored.
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CAF Executive Committee Resolution On September 6
CAF said that Angola be granted the hosting rights to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.
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That the bid of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon be granted but pushed forward, such that they can jointly host the 2012 edition of the competition. ??
In the same vein, Libya was called upon to host the 2014 edition of the competition (now put back to 2013, following a CAF resolution in 2010).
The CAF Executive committee said that Nigeria be given full support by CAF, towards the bidding and hosting of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2009. And that Nigeria be prepared as a standby host, in the event of any of the three aforementioned hosts not being able to host the tournament. It is the second time in two months that CAF will snub Nigeria. Last month, the continental body picked Egypt to host the CAF U-23 Olympic qualifying tournament, despite the NFF showing strong interest.?
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Other decisions of CAF were to award the hosting rights of the 2014 African Women Championships to Namibia, the 2015 and 2017 U-17 Championships to Niger and Madagascar respectively, and the 2015 Under Championships to Senegal.
South Africa was also named hosts of the 2014 African Nations Championships. ?
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