Morocco's Minister of Youth and Sport Rachid Talbi Alami has said that the north African country is no longer keen on hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations – with South Africa as the interested party.
Alami was quoted by AFP making it clear that they would not be replacing Cameroon, who were stripped of the rights last month due to poor preparations for staging the first expanded (from 16 to 24) tournament.
South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan had confirmed their interest to take over from their West African counterparts.
Read: Could CAF cover Afcon Costs?
He told a packed media gallery last week that SA had all the infrastructures and even suggested that the Confederations of African Football – the continent's football governing body – could cover all costs following indications that the government had reservations because of the costs, estimated at R140 million by Safa CEO Russel Paul.
The deadline is tomorrow to submit a formal proposal to CAF to host the Afcon, but with Morocco no longer one of the frontrunners, it was initially thought that South Africa could be announced as host of the event.
Should the bid be successful and Bafana Bafana qualify as hosts, their final qualifier away to Libya in March would only be crucial for the north Africans as they can still qualify for the Afcon if they win that game.
According to reports, Egypt has also put in a bid to host the competition.
Jordaan was not immediately available for comment as he was in Qatar this week and is travelling back today.
