CAF requests Ghana to host 2015 AFCON

Accra (Ghana): Ghana has been requested by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to consider hosting the 2015 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), Mahama Ayariga, the minister for youth and sports has confirmed.

Ayariga said Thursday CAF had officially written to Ghana to consider hosting the 2015 AFCON if Morocco dropped its bid to host the competition, reports Xinhua.

Moroccan media Wednesday reported that the country had officially pulled out of hosting next year's games for fear of the Ebola disease.

Moroccan authorities wrote officially to CAF about 10 days ago that because of the fears of the virus, and the scourge of people who would be travelling to Morocco for the tournament, they could not offer any guarantees.

There has not been any official statement on that as of now.

"The government of Ghana is considering this call," Ayariga said.

Officials of CAF are scheduled to meet with Moroccan authorities soon to deliberate on the issue where a final decision on hosting the tournament will be taken.

But, in the meantime, Africa's football governing body has written to a number of countries it thinks have the capacity to be an alternative venue for the competition, Ghana being one such country.

"CAF wrote to us a few days ago actually and indicated that Morocco has given strong indications that they will pull out if CAF did not change the date and the confederation also indicated that it was firm on those dates."

"They are writing to us to consider hosting 2015 AFCON in the event of Morocco actually pulling out if they are unable to reach an agreement on the date," Ayariga said.

Ghana will make its decision known to the CAF in due course. The 2015 AFCON is scheduled to take place between Jan 17 and Feb 8.

Ghana has officially submitted its bid to host the 2017 Nations Cup.