BEVERLY HILLS, October 02, (THEWILL) –Â Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea or Morocco will replace Kenya as hosts of the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
This was revealed in a statement released on Monday by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) saying that one of the three countries will be selected in October to host the January 12-February 4 tournament.
CHAN is restricted to home-based footballers, giving them international exposure otherwise largely denied because most African national squads are packed with professionals playing in Europe.
Original hosts Kenya fell behind with five-venue preparations for the biennial 16-team tournament, leading them to be stripped of the hosting rights last month.
Morocco, widely regarded as favourites to replace Kenya, have not hosted a senior CAF competition since the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations.
They were scheduled to stage the same event in 2015, but withdrew fearing visiting supporters could bring the deadly Ebola virus into the North African kingdom.
Equatorial Guinea successfully replaced Morocco at short notice, having co-hosted the Cup of Nations with Gabon three years earlier while the last senior CAF competition held in Ethiopia was the 1976 Cup of Nations.
