The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has unanimously decided to strip Kenya of its right to host the CHAN tournament and awarded same to Morocco. The CHAN tournament is a biennial football tournament for home-based football national teams. Morocco, have not hosted a senior continental competition since the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations. The North African country replaces Kenya, who had their rights to host withdrawn by Caf due to a lack of preparation.
The tournament for locally-based players is scheduled to take place in January and February 2018.
The decision to move the competition was made at an emergency Caf executive committee meeting in Lagos, Nigeria.
Three candidates were considered; Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, and Ethiopia. Ethiopia was struck out, after not providing a letter of guarantee from the country’s government.
The awarding of the tournament to Morocco also benefits Egypt, who were awarded Morocco’s place – now freed up as hosts – after being initially knocked out by their fellow North Africans in qualifying.
It will be Egypt’s first appearance in the competition.
Kenya’s preparations were deemed unfitting for the biennial 16-team tournament – which runs from 12 January to 4 February 2018 – leading them to be stripped of the hosting rights last month.
They were due to stage the Nations Cup in 2015, but lost the hosting rights, after expressing fears.
