The CAF Presidency of Patrice Motsepe could receive a stern test when it comes to the fairness of awarding the hosting rights after a bidding process was opened for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Guinea were initially awarded the rights to host the 2025 Afcon tournament but they have been stripped of the rights after they did not meet the infrastructure requirements.
Read: CAF Re-Open Bidding Process For 2025 AFCON
As reported in edition 1300 of Soccer Laduma, after CAF reopened the bidding process, Zambia were the first Southern African country to raise their hands to submit their bid and the Siya crew can reveal that the Chipolopolo Football Association have been given the green light by the country's government to submit their bid.
The Siya crew understands that Zambian FA President Andrew Kamanga has travelled to Ivory Coast this week, the hosts for the 2023 tournament, in Abijan to discuss with the Ivorians and meet the CAF top brass to sign the agreement.
CAF opened a satellite office in Abidjan in April this year as part of it's build-up to the 34th edition of Afcon in 2023 in Ivory Coast and also to ensure better co-ordination between the government and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for the tournament.
The deadline for member associations to submit their final bid is 16 December, including all bidding and hosting documents (hosting agreement, host cities agreement, government guarantees), as announced by CAF.
Morocco and Algeria are seen as favourites and scrutiny will be on Motsepe after his statement that he would like to see other countries bid for hosting CAF events following criticism that CAF favours Morocco.
"Sometimes Morocco are the only bidder," Motsepe told the media in Rabat, responding to criticism that CAF gives Morocco preferential treatment
"I encourage other countries to bid to host events, I'd like to see Uganda hosting something.
"I'd like to see a beach soccer tournament going to Mozambique," he added.
The 2012 Afcon champions were previously backed by former CAF President Issa Hayatou, who was impressed by their level of organisation after successfully hosting the 2017 U-20 Afcon and believed they deserved a bigger opportunity.
"We were surprised how the tournament was organised. In fact it was beyond our expectation," Hayatou was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.
"I am speaking in the presence of my Caf executive members, definitely if Faz bid,"
FAZ followed it up with the bid to host the 2019 biennial tournament but lost to Cameroon, whose hosting was deferred to 2021 (with Egypt stepping up to host) due to insecurity issues and infrastructure delays.
