The CAF Executive Committee met yesterday in Cairo to decide the shortlist for countries bidding to host the 2010 African Cup of Nations. According to CAF officials, the technical committee will rank the bids according to zonal distribution of previous final competitions and linguistic considerations in the previous finals. An unprecedented eight bids were submitted to host the event in four years` time, but none can say they fulfil all the criteria necessary to host such a tournament. Libya, Nigeria and
Senegal have all organised the Nations Cup in the past. While bidding for the first time are Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, as well as the countries putting in a joint bid, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Zimbabwe are bidding for the third time and were due to host the 2000 Nations Cup but CAF withdrew the competition from them, citing late preparations and lack of a government guarantee. Botswana had already withdrawn their bid saying that they do not have the necessary hotel capacity to cope with the event.
