THE Confederation of African Football President Patrice Motsepe has squashed all rumours that the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations would either be postponed or taken away from Cameroon.
The Central African country is scheduled to host the tournament in five venues from 9 January to 6 February, 2022.
The tournament had already been shifted by a year due to Covid-19 but there have been intense whispers that it would be moved again because of the spread of the Omicron variant of the highly contagious virus and Cameroon’s inability to get the facilities ready in time.
European clubs, especially those in England, and their media have also been pushing for the tournament to be cancelled.
However, Motsepe was definitive on Monday evening when speaking in Cameroon regarding the organisation of the continent’s most important single-sport event.
“We’re ready to show the world the best of African football but also the best of African hospitality,” the South African billionaire businessman told reporters inside one of the host stadiums he inspected.
“We’re Africans and caring and loving people. It’s going to be a successful AFCON, the most successful.”
When asked when the ‘successful AFCON’ would be played, Motsepe replied without hesitation: “I’m here (in Cameroon) from January 7 and if I’m here January 7, everybody must be here.”So come January 9, they must kick off.
“But it’s also important we have to believe in our people. We have to stop being the ones that lack confidence in ourselves and are always expressing sceptical, negative views of our own people. All over the world, there are competitions where there are challenges and sometimes people get 95 percent. We have to be more optimistic. Sometimes we’re overcritical of ourselves.
“If we’re not going to have confidence in our people, who’s going to have confidence in our people? I’m confident, I’m excited and I’m proud of the work the people of Cameroon have done.”
Motsepe, the owner of South African top flight football club Mamelodi Sundowns, believes the AFCON will meet global standards.
He said: “We can host a football competition that’s as good as you can see in Europe and in the world. See you when we start on January 9. I’ll be here from January 7 with my wife and children because we’re all Cameroonians now.”
Twenty-four African teams will converge on Cameroon for the tournament, including Nigeria who are in the same group as Egypt, Guinea Bissau and Sudan.
