CAIRO — The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has hit out at the South African Football Association (Safa) for claiming it is set to replace Libya as host of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
In a statement last week, Safa revealed it had reached an agreement with its Libyan counterpart to switch the hosting rights to future editions of the continent’s showpiece tournament.
Libya is due to stage the 2013 event, but the ongoing conflict in the country has put a halt to almost all football activity since March.
South Africa had been awarded the rights to host the 2017 tournament, but Safa has now claimed it will stage the 2013 Cup of Nations owing to the “political upheaval” in Libya.
However Caf secretary-general Hicham El Amrani said such an agreement would still need to be rubber-stamped by its executive committee which meets next month in Cairo.
“We are disappointed that the South African Football Association has chosen to make public these discussions and plans before the matter is discussed by our executive committee,” El Amrani told Reuters. “It would have been correct to have waited until it is discussed and ratified.
It is premature and it has upset us that there has been this breach of protocol.”
