Angola is not interested in replacing Morocco as hosts for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations despite rumours the oil-rich nation was hoping to step in.
Morocco were expelled from the tournament on Tuesday after refusing to host the competition as scheduled due to fears over the spread of Ebola.
Having hosted the tournament in 2010, Angola had been tipped as a front-runner to replace them. However, João Lusevikueno – vice president of the Angolan football federation – poured cold water on those suggestions on Wednesday.
“Angola is not going to host the competition, we haven’t presented our candidature and it is not our intention to do so,” he told news agency Agence France-Presse.
“The country’s 2015 budget, which has to be voted on on Thursday, does not facilitate any possibility in this matter.”
Lusevikueno added that to step in and organise a competition of this scale in two months – it is due to start on January 17 – was “virtually impossible”.
Angola’s staging of the 2010 Nations Cup was marred by the attack on the Togo team bus by separatists in the restless enclave of Cabinda which killed two people.
Egypt, Gabon, which co-hosted the 2012 edition with Equatorial Guinea, and reigning champions Nigeria are now the favourites to replace Morocco, with the Confederation of African Football expecting to make an announcement before the end of the week. Ghana and South Africa are among the nations to have already ruled themselves out as potential hosts.
Issa Hayatou, the Caf president , said it would have “signed its death warrant” if it had postponed the tournament.
