French newspaper L’Equipe said Friday Equatorial Guinea will host the 2015 AFCON from January 17 to February 8 in place of Morocco, who were disqualified. The confirmation has been given by sources in Equatorial Guinea with the official announcement to come later today. CAF President Issa Hayatou reached Malabo on Friday to handle talks with Equatorial Guinea Head of State Teodoro Obiang Nguema. A highly inspired Equatorial Guinea reached the last eight when they co-hosted the competition along with Gabon. They were trounced 3-0 by Cote d’Ivoire. High costs of living and shortage of hotel rooms were the major challenges when the oil-rich island first hosted the competition two years and it is left to be seen how they will now cope with 16 teams and not eight teams like in 2012. Original AFCON 2015 hosts Morocco had insisted the competition be postponed after they expressed fears over the Ebola Virus Disease, which has killed over 5,000 people in West Africa thus far. The North Africans have since been disqualified from next year’s tourney and more sanctions are expected to be imposed on them.
