The President of Ivory Coast Alassane Ouattara says his country will not need to co-host the expanded Africa cup of Nations finals in 2021.
He said the country has the capability to host 24 teams rather than 16 stipulated in its original bid.
Ouattara was talking during an official visit to Sierra Leone.
“The reality is that we go by the decision made to extend the number of teams to participate at Afcon and Ivory Coast has the infrastructure,” he said.
“A few days ago we hosted the Francophone games with 4,000 athletes participating from 54 countries.
“It ended on Sunday with the Vice President of Ivory Coast giving medals to those who won.
“So Ivory Coast has the infrastructure and in any case we are going to continue between now and 2021 to build the necessary infrastructure to host the finals.”
Ivory Coast were originally given the rights to host a 16-team event but in July the Confederation of African Football decided to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24.
The tournament has also been moved from it’s traditional dates of January and February to later in the year in the months of June and July.
The Chairman of the Caf’s Nations Cup organising committee Amaju Pinnick told BBC Sport last week that their decision to increase the teams at the continent’s biennial event is to try to encourage countries in a particular region to co-host future Afcon finals.
BBC
