Rabat - Issa Hayatou, the President of African Football Federation (CAF) indicated that Morocco will be banned from participating from the African Cup of Nations (CAN) for the next four years.
In an interview with the French radio station RFI he said that CAF will apply its rules, which provides for sanctions against countries who don’t respect their commitments.
“The rules are clear. You remember when Nigeria boycotted the tournament in 1996? The Nigerian President prevented its country from taking part in the tournament and Nigeria was excluded for four years,” he said.
“There will be no double standards, for this will harm the African football,” he added.
It is unclear whether the CAF suspension will also mean that Morocco will be banned from participating in the CAN 2019.
Morocco will miss the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and it is likely to pay an enormous fines for refusing to organize the sport event at its due time.
Last October, the Moroccan government asked CAF to postpone the CAN 2015 over fears of the Ebola virus. Despite the efforts made by Rabat to convince the African football governing body, Issa Hayatou, CAF’s president said that the arguments presented by Morocco were "not convincing."
Following its meeting on Tuesday in Cairo, the executive committee of the CAF decided that the African Cup of Nations 2015 would not take place in Morocco. The decision also means that the Moroccan national team is “automatically disqualified and will not take part in the 30th edition of the forthcoming African Cup of Nations.
On Friday CAF announced that Equatorial Guinea has been designated as new host of the 2015 African Cup of Nations.
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