MOROCCO had made attempts to host the FIFA World Cup as far back as 1998. The country entered the bidding race for both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups but failed narrowly. FIFA admitted that MOROCCO had presented one of the best bidding schemes but North Africa were not favoured to win it. In 2011, MOROCCO Sports Minister Moncef Belkhayat revealed that the city of CASABLANCA was launching a bid for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. The last time MOROCCO hosted the Afcon was in 1988 and so they were craving to host the tournament. The idea to host the 2015 Afcon was actually hatched in 2009. Their bidding committee was regarded as the strongest, consisting of several influential ex stars with ranks in CAF and African football. Former Atlas Lions captain Noureddine Naybet and Ballon dOr winners Ahmed Faras (1976), Mohamed Timoumi (1985), Badou Zaki (1986) and Mustapha Hadji (1998) were part of the national campaign to convince CAF to hold Orange CAN 2015 in MOROCCO. MOROCCOs bid was the most expensive compared to Botswana, Zambia, Cameroon, Guinea, Congo DR, Zimbabwe etc who all entered the race. Their estimated infrastructure and organizational cost was 14 Billion dirhams. With the best 12 international standard stadia, transport, telecommunication, health etc. Again, MOROCCO is the first nation outside Asia to host the prestigious FIFA Club World Cup. MOROCCO has one of the best health sectors in Africa. On Ebola, MOROCCO has placed ultra-modern thermal cameras at all international airports. These Cameras can detect feverish travellers from a 20 metre radius and track them for screening. In fact when GHANA rejected to host Ebola stricken Sierra Leone for the Afcon qualifiers, Morocco had already secured Hotels, vans and training facilities that were fumigated in order to host a rejected Guinea, including allowing pockets of the Guinean fans into their country. They were expecting 30,000-50,000 fans for the Afcon in January. They were ready for it. So what really happened? What actually did they see? Did they envisage an EBOLA DOOM?. In MOROCCOs letter to CAF requesting for the Afcon to be rescheduled, they put in three suggestions. (A)Host AFCON in 2017 (B)Postpone AFCON 2015 to 2016 (C)Withdraw and FACE CONSEQUENCES from CAF. So why would a country that has spent years in preparing for a tournament they have longed for, decide to pull-out in the last hour after making so much investments in all sectors? MOROCCO is in North Africa which has no reported cases of Ebola at the moment, but they have decided to pull out. So why will CAF decide to even evaluate bringing the tournament to WEST AFRICA, where the disease is prevalent? And how could that country in West Africa even decide to CONSIDER the proposal? A country that has failed to deal with CHOLERA consider hosting AFCON with a 3 month notice, in a bid to replace MOROCCO, a country known to have ERADICATED cholera, malaria, polio etc as far back as 2004. This is the CAF that neglected earlier threats and defied orders to pass CABINDA as a venue in AFCON 2010. What happened is history. This is the CAF that forced CS Sfaxien to play Horoya Club of Guinea in Conakry, in a month the Ebola had killed over 100 people in the city in less than a week. Let nobody, by their political, financial or personal interest CONSIDER hosting AFCON 2015. What the visionary Morocco health officials saw, blind politicians will never see. Good Samaritans gone bad. Im done.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 09:16:11 +0000