South Africa has formerly signified interest to bail out the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as hosts of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
This was made known by the country’s FA President Danny Jordaan on Wednesday night.
CAF stripped Cameroon of the rights to host the competition and have already contacted South Africa as a plug and play option, although there are a few issues left to iron out.
Jordaan says SAFA have sent CAF a letter saying they are interested in hosting the competition and will now wait on the continent’s governing body to tell them what is required, before they fully engage with the South African government on the matter.
“We submitted a letter to express interest and CAF must respond saying ‘these are the requirements’ and then we will respond,” he said.
“They said the decision will be taken before the end of December. I don’t want to disclose private and confidential discussions, but we have spoken to the government. We cannot go to the government and they ask us what are the requirements and we say we don’t have the requirements. So it’s step-by-step.
“Many people in CAF said now that they have to move away from Cameroon, they have to have a plug-and-play option. In other words everything must be in place; the stadium, the roads, the hotels, the airport, the broadcast infrastructure, the telecommunication. South Africa presents that so-called plug-and-play option.”
