Morocco replaces Kenya as hosts of 2018 Africa Nations Championship

Morocco have beaten competition from Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia to land the rights to host the 2018 Championship of African Nations (CHAN).

The north African country country were named as the winners of the bid on Saturday during the Confederations of African Football Executive Committee meeting in Lagos, Nigeria.

Morocco will replace Kenya as the hosts of the competition for only home-based players after the East African country was last month stripped of the rights to host the tournament.

Four cities namely Agadir, Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier have been chosen by the Morocco FA as the host cities.

The tournament will run from 12th January to 4th February 2018.

Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia were also in contention for the rights to stage the continental event which was initially scheduled for Kenya.

Kenya was stripped off the rights on 23rd September for lack of preparedness.

Morocco will be hosting the biennial event for the first time.

Rwanda successfully hosted the last edition won by the DR Congo in 2016.

With a new host, Egypt who were eliminated by Morocco in the 2018 qualifiers will take Kenya’s slot.

Kenya lost the right to host the 2018 event following a Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive committee meeting in Accra.

A Caf inspection team visited Kenya from 11 to 17 September 2017 and found that only one of the four venues was ready to stage the event.