Ivory Coast May Be Disqualified From Afcon

The Ivory Coast national football team, (nicknamed the Elephant) will be disqualified from the 2015 African Cup of nations, if they forfeit their qualifier game against Sierra Leone, because of the fear of the deadly Ebola virus, which has been ravaging some West Africa nations.

The government of Ivory Coast said, that they will not allow Sierra Leone team into their country, for the September 6th encounter in Abidjan.

Ivorian officials are very fearful, that the virus could be brought into the country. The football federation of the country said that they are considering two options, which are to relocate the game or forfeit it, instead of allowing Sierra Leoneans to enter their shores.

But the football governing body in Africa, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), said in reaction to the forfeiture notion, that if a country forfeit a match, that country is no longer legible to continue in the competition. In other words, the country is automatically disqualified.

''If a country forfeits one qualifier, they will be disqualified from the championship,'' CAF spokesman said.

CAF also said that the issue of Ebola will be re-visited, in the middle of September for a further assessment of the situation.

In other to allay the fears of the Ivorians, the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has named their foreign based players, to prosecute the game for them. CAF is insisting that all games must go on as planned.

Sierra Leone is not the only country affected by the deadly virus, but it is one of the three countries that was hit hardest. The other two hardest hit countries are Liberia and Guinea, where the out-break began.

CAF said that these three countries, are required to relocate their home games. These three nations have recorded about 1500 deaths from the virus.

Among the six affected nations, Nigeria recorded 5 deaths out of 13 reported cases, from the virus in Lagos, which is in the Western part of the country, and no other part of the country is infected.

This may be the reason why CAF allows Nigeria, to host their September 6th match against Congo, in the Southern city of Calabar. It was reported that Congo asked CAF for a relocation of the match outside Nigeria, but the organisation did not sanction the idea, since only a few number of people were infected by the virus in Lagos.

As afore-mentioned in this article, Confederation of African Football (CAF) is very adamant, that all the scheduled matches on that day must go on as planned, except the three countries in the epi-centre of the virus, which have been ordered to relocate their home games to neutral countries.

In the match between Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, I think the solution which the SLFA adopted, is the best one to solve the problem of fear of contacting the virus.

It is a good solution. Countries that are safe, and are afraid to play against countries that are inffected, should request that the inffected countries must use only players that are based in safe foreign countries.
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