While Guinea claims to be ready to host CAN 2025, CAF is considering withdrawing the organization of the event. Officially for delays in the works.
"We did not come for withdraw the CAN organization from Guinea, but to see if it has any proposals to convince CAF to trust it”. Members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who traveled to Conakry have, in their own way, announced that he no longer really counts on Guinea to organize the African Cup of Nations (CAN) 2025.
If the Beninese Mathurin de Chacus, member of the Executive Committee of the CAF, and Véron Monsengo-Omba, secretary general, have affirmed to find "solutions to help" Guinea, they both seem to want to write a report against Conakry .
However, for Mamadi Doumbouya, the president of the transition since the coup last September, the organization of the CAN is a "national priority". One of his first measures, in addition to current political affairs, was to appoint Lansana Bea Diallo, the Minister of Sports, as head of the CAN Organizing Committee (COCAN).
Would this inspection visit be just a subterfuge, when the decision of the CAF would in fact already be ratified? According to BBC, on July 3, the authority had already decided to withdraw the organization of the CAN from Guinea. In other words, the leaders of CAF would have taken a political decision, which is not based on the actual state of progress of the work.
Nigeria and Benin on the starting blocks
Because if, in the corridors of the CAF, we were already advancing, at the time, delays in the work, the authority is rarely quick to modify its plans so far upstream. For the CAN in Cameroon, CAF only considered withdrawing the organization of the CAN in Douala a few months before the competition.
For COCAN, which benefits from a budget of 800 million euros and the support of the president of the transition, "work has been started", even if, admits the committee, "since the competition was awarded in Guinea, some things could have gone faster. But I think we can meet the deadlines, the State has decided to devote significant resources to it”.
But already, Conakry is preparing for a contrary decision. "Even if CAF entrusts CAN 2025 to another country and decides that Guinea will organize that of 2027, the work, which concerns sports infrastructure, but also airports, roads, hospitals or hotels will be carried out, because it contributes to the development of the country. We can meet the requirements of the CAF specifications. From now on, we are waiting for his decision, ”explains the boss of COCAN who is waiting for Patrice Motsepe in Guinea.
As every time a country sees itself withdrawing the organization of the CAN, the name of Morocco arises. But Nigeria and Benin are also in pole position to take matters into their own hands. However, we still do not know if the CAN 2025 will take place as planned in 2026. With the postponement of the CAN in Côte d'Ivoire and the World Cup in America, in 2026, it is difficult to fit the African competition into the calendar.