APA-Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) The General Secretary of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Veron Mosengo-Omba, on Wednesday, December 20, 2023, gave a “definitive update” on preparations for the AfCON 2023, scheduled to take place from January 13 to February 11, 2024, in Côte d’Ivoire.
Mr. Veron Mosengo-Omba assured that “everything is ready” for the 34th Africa Cup of Nations to get underway. In front of the cameras in the conference room of the Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium, the CAF General Secretary spoke about several aspects of the competition.
“On behalf of the President of the Confederation, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, I would like to thank the Ivorian authorities, headed by President Alassane Ouattara, for the excellent infrastructure made available to African soccer,” he declared at the start of the press conference.
The CAF General Secretary announced that 20 percent of the revenue generated by the AfCON 2023 will be donated to the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) for the development of local football. For him, this is CAF’s “legacy.”
According to him, the infrastructure augurs well for the preparations “given the high quality of the accommodation sites, where the teams will be housed,” “hyper-secure” spaces, as well as the state of the roads and the hospitals, which are “magnificent.”
Regarding ticketing, which applicants can purchase online, he mentioned that “for the first time, CAF has launched online sales”, and that an initial test was carried out, with 25 percent of tickets sold out after two days.
He noted that there were various physical points of sale in cities “to enable those who don’t have access to the Internet to get them.” These points of sale are: Yamoussoukro, Bouake, Korhogo, San-Pedro, Grand-Bassam, Cocody, Plateau, Bingerville, Songon, Anyama, Yopougon and Adjame.
Turning to ticket prices, he mentioned the following: 5,000 CFA francs for category 3, 10,000 CFA francs for category 2 and 15,000 CFA francs for category 1. According to him, these prices are “affordable,” having been studied with the local committee.
“Côte d’Ivoire is like honey. Everyone wants to come to this country,” he quipped, pointing out that CAF had received over 5,000 accreditation applications for the 2023 AfCON, 90 percent more than for the previous edition held in Cameroon in 2021.
To meet demand, CAF has divided the requests as follows: host country: 30 percent, participating countries: 35 percent, regional (neighboring) countries: 10 percent and the rest of the world: 25 percent, said the CAF General Secretary.
The AfCON participating teams will start coming in from January 4, 2024. Team coaches submitted a first list of 55 players to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on December 14, 2023. They are authorized to present 27 players and retain 23 by January 3, 2024.
The 34th African Cup of Nations will be broadcast in over 150 countries around the world.
AP/fss/abj/APA