Gabon: $240m pumped into next AFCON

  1. Posted on Friday 29 January 2010 - 12:13
    Gbentil
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    Glorea Bentil, AfricaNews reporter in Accra, Ghana Photo: Jean-Louis Albert
    About $240 million (Sh18 billion) have been allocated for infrastructure development this year ahead of the 2012 African Cup of Nations, stated the chairman of the Gabon tournament local organizing committee, Rene Adiaheno, in Luanda.
    Jean-Louis Albert_Gabon12
    The Eastern Africa nation is co-hosting the 28th edition of the tournament with neighbours Equatorial Guinea.

    Adiaheno said during a presentation to the media that Gabon was investing millions of dollars in sports infrastructure, hotels, roads and telecommunication in preparations for the biennial African football fete, reported the Daily Nation.

    His counterpart from Equatorial Guinea, Ruslan Nsue, also said massive investment was under way in his country, including the building of two new stadiums for the tournament. The opening ceremony will be held in Equatorial Guinea and the final will be hosted by Gabon.

    The Confederation of African Football’s decision to award the 2012 tournament to the non-traditional venues was to boost sports development in those areas.

    CAF president Issa Hayatou has often argued that awarding the game to smaller countries, as was the case with Burkina Faso in 1998 and Mali in 2002, led to development of new sporting infrastructure that benefited the people of those countries and Africa.

    The Angolan government spent an estimated $1 billion dollars (Sh75 billion)| to build four new stadiums and other infrastructure for the current edition. Football Kenya Limited has officially indicated to CAF their intentions to bid for the 2016 edition.

    For the first time in CAF history, the hosts of three successive tournaments were chosen at the same time; Angola was chosen to host in 2010, Gabon/Equatorial Guinea were chosen as hosts for the 2012 cup and Libya for the 2014 edition. Nigeria was chosen as a stand-by host in the event that one of the chosen nations were to become unsuitable.

Reactions

  1. Posted on Saturday 30 January 2010 14:42
    Bas
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    Bas Vlugt
    83 berichten
    Lid sinds May 2007
    Haarlem

    Hi Glorea,

    I am trying to get in contact with you!

    Please contact me at bas@africanews.com

    Thanks!

    Bas Vlugt
    AfricaNews

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