Equatorial Guinea has agreed to host Africa’s most important soccer tournament early next year after Morocco refused, citing fear about the possible spread of Ebola.
Having co-hosted the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea has experience organizing the 16-team tournament, which is the continent’s biennial championship. Equatorial Guinea will also replace Morocco in the 16-team field, despite being thrown out of the tournament in July for fielding an ineligible player in a match against Mauritania.
The Confederation of African Football, expressing “thanks and deep appreciation,” announced Friday that the 2015 Cup would be held from Jan. 17 to Feb. 8 in four cities in Equatorial Guinea.
C.A.F., the regional governing body, had expressed concern about severe financial difficulties if the tournament were to be postponed.
The final round of qualifying will be completed in the next week. Of the three countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, Liberia has been eliminated from the qualifying tournament and Sierra Leone sits last in its group. Guinea has an outside chance of qualifying.
NO COMMENT FROM GARCIA Michael J. Garcia, the chairman of the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee, did not elaborate Friday on his criticism of the way that FIFA’s head ethics judge summarized his lengthy report on accusations of corruption into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. During an hourlong panel discussion on corruption at Columbia Law School, Garcia and Patrick Fitzgerald, a former United States attorney for the Northern District in Illinois, spoke about their careers as federal prosecutors.
On Thursday, after Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory arm of FIFA’s ethics committee, released a summary of Garcia’s report, Garcia released a statement that said Eckert’s report contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions detailed in the investigatory chamber’s report.” Garcia said he would appeal Eckert’s report, which acknowledged “potentially problematic conduct” but no significant evidence of corruption in the World Cup bidding process, and which ruled out a revote on the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Eckert told The Associated Press on Friday that he would reach out to Garcia to discuss their rift. Garcia, a former United States attorney for the Southern District in New York, did not talk about the report at Columbia, but he discussed his role as FIFA’s chief ethics investigator and prosecutor since 2012. RICHARD SANDOMIR
GERMANY BACK ON TRACK Thomas Müller scored twice as Germany beat Gibraltar, 4-0, in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship. Germany remains 3 points behind the Group D leader, Poland, which won, 4-0. (AP)
SCOTLAND MOVES UP Shaun Maloney scored to lead Scotland past Ireland, 1-0, putting Scotland even with Ireland and Germany in Group D. (REUTERS)
GREECE IS UPSET Greece lost, 1-0, to Faroe Islands in qualifying. Joan Edmundsson scored for Faroe Islands, which got its first competitive win since a 2-0 victory over Estonia on June 7, 2011. It was ranked 187th by FIFA. Greece was ranked 18th.
