"Not since 2012 has a Cup of Nations been held in the venue and at the time originally planned: 2013 was switched from Libya to South Africa because of the civil war; 2015 was moved to Equatorial Guinea when Morocco withdrew from hosting over Ebola fears; 2017 was moved to Gabon because of the turmoil in Libya; 2019 was moved from Cameroon to Egypt because of construction delays; 2021 was played in Cameroon, but not until 2022 because of Covid;"
"and 2023 was initially scheduled for Cote d'Ivoire in June/July only to be shunted back to January/February when somebody at CAF belatedly looked at the weather charts and accepted trying to play a tournament in the west African rainy season was nonsensical. However absurd the idea of playing tournaments regularly in the European summer is the plan really never to play the tournament in west Africa again? that remains official policy."
Episodes of relocation, delay and rescheduling have repeatedly disrupted the Africa Cup of Nations. Since 2012 multiple tournaments changed hosts or dates because of civil war, Ebola fears, construction delays, internal turmoil and Covid, while CAF has struggled with weather planning. European clubs and the Premier League assess the tournament by its impact on their season, and FIFA calendar pressures — including Gianni Infantino's expanded Club World Cup — have pushed AFCON into December–February slots and away from proposed European-summer windows. These shifts create fixture congestion, undermine venue plans and expose tensions between African competition needs and global scheduling authorities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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