AFCON 2015: CAF insists on January

The Confederation of Africa Football on Sunday rose from an emergency meeting with the organisers of the AFCON 2015 in Morocco and decided unanimously that the championship will hold as scheduled from January 17 to February 8, 2015 despite the country’s concern over the Ebola virus disease.

According to a release from CAF yesterday,  the meeting considered the request of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Morocco on the postponement of the 2015 Orange Africa Cup of Nations but insisted that based on the precautionary measures put in place on the Ebola Virus Disease, there would be no need for a shift in date.
CAF’s media director Junior Binyam confirmed the event is still scheduled to take place as planned from January 17 to February 8.
“CAF confirms the dates of the tournament,” said Binyam, adding that a second meeting has been scheduled for November 11 in CAF’s Cairo headquarters to ‘take the necessary decisions’.
“Any change of dates would be to the detriment of the CAF calendar, which must follow FIFA’s international calendar.”
CAF argued that since the beginning of the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus, it has always acted in accordance with the precautionary principle of safeguarding lives by strictly adhering to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) which was enforced through a circular dated 12 August 2014 which sanctioned the suspension of all CAF competitions in countries heavily affected by the disease; Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, so as to prevent holding football matches that could result in mass gatherings and could facilitate the spread of the virus.
Morocco now have until November 8 to officially respond to CAF, according to Moroccan Football Federation spokesman Mohamed Makrouf.