No official announcement yet, but it’s Cameroon who will host the 2020 Total African Nations Championship (CHAN) and not Ethiopia after the latter expressed doubts about its readiness to stage the tournament early next year.
Cameroon’s acceptance to host the 2020 CHAN Finals is timely intervention since it will help them put a few screws right ahead of the 2021 AFCON finals.
CAF president Ahmad Ahmad said the issue was discussed by African football’s ruling body ahead of Friday’s draw for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
“We had a reconvening of the Executive Committee. It resulted in some fairly important points, Ethiopia’s withdrawal as CHAN hosts in 2020,” Ahmad was quoted by the BBC.
“We attributed it [Chan 2020], directly, by a tacit agreement, to Cameroon for 2020, therefore, this will allow us to be better prepared for the African Nations Cup,” Ahmad added.
Reports: Ethiopia not ready to host 2020 CHAN Finals – https://t.co/Dc33AdNlYB#Football256 #TotalCHAN2020 pic.twitter.com/bQG9KWBDl4
— Football256™ (@f00tball256) April 11, 2019
However, there is no official statement on the 2020 CHAN that have been made by CAF or Cameroon’s FA, FECAFOOT.
Cameroon were supposed to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals but it was later revealed that they were far from being ready to host a 24-team tournament. At the time they won the bid, the competition was still a sixteen-team tournament.
That forced CAF to drop Cameroon and award Egypt the rights to the host the finals, it was then revealed that Cameroon would host the 2021 finals replacing Ivory Coast who would then host the 2023 finals. Ivory Coast replaced Guinea who were awarded the 2025 hosting rights.
Cameroon replaces Ethiopia for the CHAN hosting rights after the latter’s FA president Esayas Jira announced that the country’s preparations to host the tournament were behind schedule.
The issue was infuriated further by the announcement that the Ethiopian government would not allocate the necessary funds to facilitate the readiness of the CECAFA nation according to report.