CAF Maintains Ghana as 2018 AWCON Hosts

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed Ghana will host the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations billed for November 17 to December 1, 2018.

The decision not to strip the West African country rights to host the bi-annual continental football showpiece was reached at a CAF Executive Committee meeting held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Speculations were rife about the country still hosting the tournament following the slow pace of work to complete facilities for the tourney.

“Ghana will host the 2018 AWCON. We discussed the importance of CAF giving them support instead of punishing them because the country has gone through some trying times in the past few months,” a senior CAF Exco member revealed to a section of reporters.

“It was decided the Normalisation Committee will be given full support to ensure they achieve their mandate and help them get the AWCON ready in time instead of stripping them of the rights as earlier envisaged.”

Ghana’s sports minister Isaac Asiamah is reported to have assured CAF president Ahmed Ahmed before the Egypt meeting that the country will be ready.

Local Organization Committee’s submission also showed the country will hold a successful tournament, a fact that seems to have acted as the base for the final decision.

Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, South Africa, Zambia, Mali and Nigeria have already qualified for the tournament and will be joined by the hosts.

The tournament also serves as a qualification to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be hosted by France.