Soccer-Ebola football ban on west African countries to remain
A fan of Ivory coast holds a sign with a message against Ebola during the 2015 African Nations Cup qualifying …
ADDIS
ABABA (Reuters) - Bans on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone hosting any
international football because of fears of spreading Ebola were kept in
place by the Confederation of African Football, its executive committee
decided on Saturday. The three west African countries -- at the
epicentre of the outbreak of the highly contagious disease -- had
originally been banned from hosting all games until mid-September but
has now been extended indefinitely, CAF announced. It means Guinea
and Sierra Leone must again move scheduled African Nations Cup
qualifiers to alternate venues next month. Guinea had to play their
opening group game against Togo in Morocco earlier this month and also
last weekend staged an under-17 qualifying tie in Casablanca. Sierra
Leone could not find an alternate venue for their qualifier against the
Democratic Republic of Congo 10 days ago and instead ceded home
advantage to their opponents. Liberia have no scheduled international
matches in the near future. Ebola has infected at least 5,357 people
in West Africa this year, mainly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia,
killing 2,630 of those, according to the World Health Organization. The
disease has also been reported in Nigeria and Senegal but these two
countries have not been banned from holding games by CAF. The
epidemic has brought sport to complete standstill in both Liberia and
Sierra Leone.
Guinea were ironically on Saturday
named as a future host of the Nations Cup finals in 2023 at the same
meeting of CAF’s executive committee in the Ethiopian capital. Teams
from the affected countries were also subjected to vigorous checks
before being allowed to play matches in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ivory Coast and Uganda earlier this month.
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