Dr Kofi Amoah, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the 26th MTN African Cup of Nations, Ghana 2008 has expressed optimism in Ghana’s abilities to host a successful tournament next year at the end of a 3-day, from 7 to 10 December 2007, inspection visit by the confederation of African Football.
The 26th edition of Africa’s biggest showpiece soccer event has barely 40 days to kick off. Accommodation is a major challenge, but Dr Amoah has assured that the LOC is putting measures in place to ensure the expected one million tourists who will be visiting country during the January 20 – February 10 Championship have decent accommodation.
“We have made alternative accommodation arrangements to meet up the demands of the visiting teams and fans.
“We are very focussed in making sure all the training pitches and other forms of preparations are intact.”
The CAF Inspection Team led by Executive Committee member, Mr. Slim Aloulou rated Ghana as 90 percent through regarding preparations towards the event after the team’s tenth inspection of facilities earmarked for the competition last week.
The Inspection team has expressed satisfaction with the state of Transportation, Accreditation, Media, Security with respect to the biennial championship.
Dr Amoah assured that LOC will step up its gear towards achieving the remaining 10 percent to achieve their objectives of hosting a successful tourney. “Our objective is to host a fabulous tournament that would become the watershed for the future of African football.”
The LOC Board Chairman commended CAF and the Government for their support in achieving their desired goals.
Ghana is hosting the competition the third time after 1965 and 1978. The four-time African Champions co-hosted the 2000 edition with Nigeria.