Africa-Press – Zambia. The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has confirmed their successful bid to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. FAZ President, Andrew Kamanga confirmed the development in his weekly update, the President’s corner saying the country will be looking to learn from what Qatar did as they hosted one of the best football events.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) in October announced that they had reopened the bidding process for the hosting rights of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations 2025 (“AFCON 2025”).
“On the domestic front we take many lessons from the world cup experience starting from hosting. Qatar did put up a splendid organisational masterclass that did not just rank among the best football events but a great show of cultural diversity. In our bid to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, we will be looking to learning from their example. Our bid was successfully filed with CAF on December 15, 2022, and we will be in the queue with a few other countries,” Kamanga said.
“We believe our bid stands a very good chance given that Southern Africa has not hosted any AFCON since the 2013 edition staged by South Africa. We also have taken a closer look at the requirements which puts a minimum of six stadia broken down as two with a capacity of at least 40, 000 and another four that will have a capacity of at least 20,000. On our part we already have two CAF certified venues in the National Heroes and Levy Mwanawasa while four other existing stadia will be upgraded to at least 15 and 20, 000 capacity. Government has agreed to build from scratch in Livingstone a 20, 000 capacity stadium which will already be supported by top class accommodation as well as an international airport.”
Kamanga says the bid has been facilitated by Government’s guaranteed support for the bid. “Part of the catalyst for this bid is the guaranteed government support that has already come through with the signing of all the guarantees required by CAF. Government has directed all sports associations to take advantage of any international events that are open to hosting as part of its wider international diplomacy agenda,” he said.
“We will draw heavily on the 2017 Under-20 AFCON that was one of the well-organized tournaments. Given the strides that our teams are making, we have no doubt that with the strides our various national teams are making, 2025 could prove a moment of triumph on home soil. CAF is expected to conduct inspections in January while the successful bidder will be announced in February,” he added.
The deadline for Member Associations to submit their final bid, including all bidding and hosting documents (hosting agreement, host cities agreement, Government guarantees) was 16th December.
CAF will be expected to make visits to Zambia between 5th and 25th January 2023 for Inspections with the CAF Executive Committee expected to appoint a host nation on 10th February. Guinea were stripped of the rights after CAF assessed that they were not ready to host the continental showpiece.
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