Veron Mosengo-Omba Pays a working visit to next AFCON hosts

A few hours after the final of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations 2021, CAF General Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba together with a CAF delegation landed in Cote d’Ivoire – the country that will host the next edition of Africa’s single-biggest event in 2023.

Mosengo-Omba was mandated by CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe to visit the next AFCON hosts as part of the President’s promise that CAF will adopt a more hands-on approach in working with future tournament hosts. The visit was also aimed at assessing the level of preparations ahead of next year’s AFCON. Cote d’Ivoire will host the competition in June/July 2023.

For two days, Mosengo-Omba, accompanied by President Motsepe’s Special Advisor Jacques Anouma, visited three sites and held deliberations with the Local Organising Committee in Cote d’Ivoire. The sites visited by the CAF delegation are: Korhogo, San Pedro and Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

The delegation also held key meetings with Cote d’Ivoire Prime Minister His Excellency Patrick Achi and Sports Minister Danho Paulin.

Mosengo-Omba commented: “The CAF President sent us here with a clear mandate to assess level of preparations. We also needed to engage with Government and the LOC on a number of matters that are part of the preparations. We are very impressed with the attitude, commitment and the understanding of the people of Cote d’Ivoire. The meeting with both Prime Minister and Sports Minister was a clear indication of this level of commitment.

“There is still a lot of work, we know this, and they know this. But we saw the progress in infrastructure is going well and the stadiums are shaping up nicely,” he said.

As part of CAF’s commitment to fostering a more close working relationship with hosts, a CAF satellite office will be established around April 2022.