It’s decided. Egypt will host the African Cup of Nations between June 15^th and July 13^th, 2019. The decision was announced following a meeting between executives of the African Football Confederation in Dakar, Senegal. The Egyptians will organize the tournament instead of Cameroon, the first place chosen to organize it, which has lost the right to receive the games due to problems in the infrastructure and in the security.

When the African Confederation announced that the Cup would be withdrawn from Cameroon, Morocco appeared as a favorite to host the event. However, at the meeting that set the official place, the dispute was between Egypt and South Africa, who were the only ones to apply. The Egyptians won with a total of 16 votes against only one of the South Africans – and there was still an abstention – and will be the hosts of the African Cup for the fourth time in history.

The 2019 CAF Africa Cup of Nations will have two new events: it will take place in the middle of the year and will have 24 teams – there used to be 16 participants until this new edition.

It is the fourth consecutive time that the African tournament has changed its place. In 2013, the finals should happen in Libya, but for security reasons, it was transferred to South Africa. In 2015, Morocco would receive the competition, but gave up, fearing contamination of its population by the Ebola virus – Equatorial Guinea took over the organization. And in 2017, South Africa and Libya could not host, and Gabon replaced the two countries.

This edition will be certainly interesting, for having more teams and making the world know more African talents that may be appearing. And Egypt will receive the competition with enough hopes to get the title, with the help of their main player, Mohamed Salah.