Ivory Coast have confirmed they have the capacity to host the expanded Africa Cup of Nations.
This was confirmed by President Alassane Ouattara during an official visit to Sierra Leone.
The Ivory Coast are set to host to the 2021 edition which will have more 8 teams as compared to what the 16 stipulated in its original bid.
“The reality is that we go by the decision made to extend the number of teams to participate at AFCON and Ivory Coast has the infrastructure,” he said as quoted by BBC Sport.
Quattara revealed that his nation had a couple of days ago hosted Francophone games that had over 4,000 athletes.
“A few days ago we hosted the Francophone games with 4,000 athletes participating from 54 countries.
It ended on Sunday with the Vice President of Ivory Coast giving medals to those who won.
So Ivory Coast has the infrastructure and in any case we are going to continue between now and 2021 to build the necessary infrastructure to host the finals.”
The tournament has also been shifted its traditional dates of January and February to later in the year in the months of June and July.
Source:BBC