In an unexpected twist, news reaching the Siya crew is that Egypt may very well be the leading contenders to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations with the South African Football Association confirming that it had not yet submitted a bid to stage the continental competition.
Original hosts Cameroon were stripped of those rights late last month because of security concerns and the lack of suitable infrastructure, forcing the Confederations of African Football to look for an alternative.
Read: SA Only Candidate For Afcon?
SAFA immediately confirmed the intent to step in, but the organisation is now in danger of missing today's deadline to submit a proposal.
The approval from the government remains a stumbling block as the Ministry of Sport has to give SAFA the go-ahead to submit the bid.
"Yes, we have not yet submitted our bid. The final decision rests with the Ministry of Sport as this has been communicated from the beginning," SAFA spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi told the Siya crew. Chimhavi said he'd been misquoted by AFP when they reported that SAFA had already sent their proposal to CAF.
SA became frontrunners to host the Afcon during midday yesterday when Morocco pulled out as one of the interested countries, with their Ministry of Sport insisting that the north Africans were never keen to replace Cameroon in the first place.
Egypt quickly came into the picture – they had stepped back after arguing that they did not want their interest in hosting the tournament to clash with those of another north African country.
Although CAF will only announce the new hosts on January 9, the deadline to submit bids has not been moved. Today is D-Day, and SAFA's chances are hanging by a thread, according to Siya sources.
This is a developing story and the Siya crew will continue to keep you updated.
