The African Football Cup of Nations Held Hostage to Ebola and Boko Haram

Reuters and CNN reported today that Morocco, which had already said it wanted the 16-team African Cup of Nations all-Africa soccer championship tournament postponed, has now definitively rejected an ultimatum set by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to confirm the hosting of the continental championship scheduled to take place from January 17 to February 8, 2015. A statement from Morocco's sports ministry said : "The decision is dictated by health reasons because of the serious threat of Ebola and the risk of its spreading." A decision on the tournament will now be made next week when CAF has an executive committee meeting in Cairo, but Morocco will almost certainly be stripped as hosts according to a CAF statement issued today. CAF said it would make no statement until after next Wednesday's meeting. ~~~~~ Morocco is concerned that supporters coming to Morocco from West Africa for the tournament could bring with them the deadly Ebola virus and put at risk the important Moroccan tourist industry. They asked CAF to postpone the event, but that possibility was rejected last week by the African football governing body, who set Morocco a deadline of Saturday to confirm it would host the three-week tournament. CAF now faces the choice of either moving the event to another country -- although it has had no public expression of interest from nations it approached to be on standby as possible emergency hosts -- or cancelling it at great financial cost. CAF accused Morocco of being alarmist in ts fears over the spread of Ebola, which has caused almost 5,000 deaths in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and set out a lengthy list of reasons why it felt Morocco could still host the tournament without any risk. Global health authorities are struggling to contain the world's worst Ebola epidemic since the disease was identified in 1976 and cases have reached as far as the United States, France and Spain. But, Morocco has stood firm in its refusal to host and could face sanctions including the possibility of a lengthy ban from future Nations Cup tournaments. The Moroccans did offer in Saturday's statement to host the 2017 finals. The tournament is Africa's continental championship, and it is highly regarded for its excellence because many of the African national teams' players are stars of European football. ~~~~~ Later this evening, France Info, the major all-news radio station in France, reported that CAF and Nigeria are talking about the possibility of transferring the tournament to Nigeria while keeping to the original timing. And, indeed, several days ago, the Nigerian Daily Independent newspaper reported that Morocco’s position "seems reasonable and pragmatic enough, and as such there shouldn’t be a problem about it. But there is actually a problem. CAF, in its wisdom, does not want the championship deferred. To call the bluff of Morocco, CAF has started shopping for new countries that could host the competition." The Daily Independent said that South Africa was approached by CAF as a possible replacement for Morocco, but "the request was reportedly turned down by the rainbow nation on the account that it has twice played host to the championship in similar situations and that it doesn’t have the financial muscle to host it within such a short notification." CAF then approached Ghana, which reportedly demanded more time to carefully study the Ebola situation in West Africa before making its position known to CAF. The Daily Independent reports that there is widespread but unconfirmed speculation that Nigeria is seriously considering hosting the African Cup of Nations, quoting a top Federal Government official as saying that “since Nigeria has been declared Ebola free by WHO, the country could throw its hat into the ring to stage the biggest soccer tournament in Africa." The Daily Independent disagrees : "If this truly reflects the thinking of the Nigerian government, there is need to counsel the Federal Government not to quickly throw caution to the wind in the euphoria of the recent clean bill of health it got from WHO over Ebola. It would be rather careless and inconsiderate, on the part of our decision makers, to jump at the chance of hosting the AFCON [tournament] without properly putting into context the pains and anguish that the nation went through in the course of its ninety-three days’ battle to contain Ebola. Considering the porous nature of our borders and other such limitations, hosting the competition, at this point in time, could make nonsense of all the gains we have made in respect of our recent travails with Ebola. Could we have suddenly forgotten the several complications that the Ebola invasion brought to our land while it lasted? It is too risky to embark upon such a venture, at this moment.  If Morocco, a country that is yet to record any cases of the Ebola virus could turn down the opportunity to host the AFCON based on the fear of Ebola, it would be regarded as a suicide mission for our dear nation to do same. It would amount to spitting on the graves of our unfortunate compatriots who paid the supreme price, while battling the deadly virus in the country." ~~~~~ Dear readers, that statement seems clear and reasonable, as does the refusal of Morocco to host the tournament and risk importing Ebola into its midst. But, France Info added a twist to the problem. It seems that CAF is very concerned that in the 60 days before the tournament is set to begin, Nigeria will not be able to put in place sufficient security measures to guarantee that the players and fans will be safe from attacks and kidnappings by Boko Haram, the jihadist terrorists who abducted 200 Christian schoolgirls in April, forced them to convert to Islam and then made them marry jihadists. Kidnappings and village massacres by Boko Haram continue. ~~ One simply has to wonder just how complex and dangerous our world has become when even sports events must consider not only the normal arrangements but also Ebola and terrorists like Boko Haram.