President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the 1st Vice President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Amaju Melvin Pinnick, on Monday in Dakar, Senegal pledged that the African football ruling body will vote for the better-qualified candidate between Egypt and South Africa to host this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals,National Daily learnt.
The announcement of the AFCON 2019 host country was brought forward to today following an adjustment on the initial agenda of CAF.
Pinnick, who is also President of the AFCON Organizing Committee, stressed that his committee has analysed the strengths of the two bidding nations and would advise CAF on the better option ahead of today’s meeting of the CAF Executive Committee that will select the host country.
“The AFCON committee of which I am the chairman has done a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on both bidding countries and we will meet on the side-line of the CAF Football Awards to finally decide on the best option and present same to CAF before Tuesday’s meeting.
“The interest of African football is paramount in this. It is important that we get this right so that the selected country can quickly put structures in place for the championship which is only about five months away,” the CAF top official noted.
The NFF boss, who is also a Member of the Organizing Committee for FIFA Competitions, arrived the Senegalese capital on Sunday evening for the meetings as well as the AITEO-CAF African Football Awards, which holds in the historic island of Goree this evening. Egyptian Mohamed Salah is tipped to retain the coveted prize. His Liverpool teammate, Sadio Mane of Senegal and Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are the other two players in contention for the top prize.