Egypt, the home soil of the current English Premier League Player of the Year and 2017 African Footballer of the Year, Mohammed Salah, will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

 

This was announced Confederation of African Football (CAF) via their official Twitter handle.

 

Breaking: Egypt will host the 2019 Total Africa Cup of Nations #TotalAFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/UZPMQDX9Te

— CAF (@CAF_Online) January 8, 2019

Egypt beat South Africa, the only other nation to bid, by 16 votes to one during the CAF executive committee vote in Senegal.

 

Cameroon, the original host nation was stripped off staging duties in November because of slow preparations. Now Egypt who will be playing host for the fifth time and has just six months to prepare for the expanded 24-team finals, set to kick off in June.

 

Since stripping Cameroon of this year’s event, CAF has offered the country the chance to stage the finals in two years’ time, which means that the original hosts for both the 2021 and 2023 finals have been asked to delay their tournaments.

 

Ivory Coast, which was set to host the 2021, has protested against the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

 

Guinea’s football federation announced on Monday that it has agreed to move its staging of the Nations Cup from 2023 to 2025.

 

Tuesday’s announcement took place in the Senegalese capital Dakar, which will host Caf’s annual awards ceremony later in the day.