BETWEEN HEALTH ,POLITICS AND FOOTBALL

Who takes the blame now ? CAF or Morocco?  In as much as the hammer has already been dropped on Morocco for refusal to go ahead and host AFCON come January 2015 for fear of the Ebola virus. Morocco was banned by CAF for requesting for a postponement of the tournament over fears of the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.  Morocco believes thousands of travelling supporters from West Africa pose a risk and wanted a postponement of at least six months while the fight against Ebola intensified.

But CAF rejected any change to the planned dates citing a packed calendar. They gave Morocco an ultimatum of Saturday to withdraw their request which was rejected, Morocco didn’t oblige hence the ban. CAF has stated that "a few applications from national associations confirming their desire to host the 2015 finals on the dates agreed".

But it did not name any of them, No country has made any public expression of interest’’. It’s been speculated that Gabon, Angola and Nigeria have all fill in applications and are awaiting for studying and confirmation. My question now is, do these nations have the capacity to control the spread of the Ebola virus. How prepared are these countries in terms of control and spread of the virus ? CAF cited a packed calendar as their excuse for not shifting the championship and I think they must understand that to battle Ebola disease out of our continent should have been paramount in that decision they took, health is wealth they say.  Any how they want to look at it health is supreme. If one Patrick Sawyer came into Nigeria with a deadly virus that caused Nigerians so much pain as it did, then one can  imagine what two, three or more Patrick Sawyer’s will do to any nation hosting an event such magnitude as the African Nations Cup. I pray we have a safe landing on this one but CAF should have critically analyzed this issue on the basis of safety before politics and football .

 

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