CAF decries poor state of stadia
The Confederation of African Football says
it will take greater control over pitches at Africa Cup of Nations to avoid
poor playing surfaces.
The pitches at this year's finals in Gabon
came in for heavy criticism, with the state of the turf in Port Gentil blamed
by then-Ghana coach Avram Grant asresponsible for causing injuries to players
"That
is a lesson for us to make sure we have better control of better management in
future," Caf secretary general Hicham El Amrani told BBC Sport.
"We
are taking it very seriously.
"One
way to do things is to be in touch with the Local Organising Committee way in
advance, even before a pitch has been laid, and to provide them with our
knowledge in terms of selection of suppliers.
"Of
course we would have been happier if certain things had been better managed -
and I'm not going to go back on the everlasting issue of the pitch in
Port-Gentil.
"But
overall we are very happy with the tournament and we congratulate the host
nation for their tremendous efforts."
Gabon
was chosen at short notice to stage the finals in April 2015, after the
tournament was removed from original hosts Libya the previous year because of
civil conflict in the country.
El
Amrani says that talks have already started about preparing the pitches for the
2019 Nations Cup in Cameroon, whose team won this year's finals.
Having
staged the Women's Africa Cup of Nations last year, some pitches have already
been in laid - which is in contrast to the turf in the new Gabonese stadiums of
both Oyem and Port-Gentil.
"We
just need to make sure we keep offering the best conditions but obviously
taking into account the environment in which we operate," he added.
"From
a football perspective, we are also very happy. We saw beautiful games."
Fan parks
Gabon
was supposed to be the first Nations Cup to have fan parks - but El Amrani says
this was cancelled after the violence that followed August's disputed
presidential elections.
The
government said three people died in street protests while the opposition party
claimed the death toll was far higher.
"Because
of some delays that we encountered following some turbulences after the
presidential elections, we decided it would be more effective not to deliver
the fan parks," the Moroccan explained.
"We
had to focus our energy and effort on delivering the stadiums, which was
obviously more important."
Caf
plans to have fan parks in Cameroon, where they were a feature of last year's
hugely popular women's tournament.
"We
cannot have them for the Women's Cup of Nations in Cameroon and then not for
the men's one," he said.
"I
think we need them anyway, not only for Cameroon but also for other teams.
People in Cameroon are so crazy about football that we might need stadiums for
200,000 people which we obviously cannot have."
On
a separate note, El Amrani denied that Caf had removed this year's Under-17 finals
from Madagascar after the head of the country's local FA, Ahmad Ahmad, chose to
challenge long-standing ruler IssaHayatou in March's presidential elections.
"It
is not true, but if the media wants to find links or comment on that, I will
not get into that area," he said.
"When
decisions are being made to grant a tournament, take it away, delay or whatever
decision is being made, it is a collective decision that is made based on
concrete factual reports."
With
the exception of Ahmad himself, all others on the Caf Executive Committee
decided to withdraw the tournament from Madagascar - citing the 'reports of
inspection teams' - and move the May event to Gabon.
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