The Confederation of African Football, CAF have confirmed that they have received Congo Brazzaville's bid to host next year's Africa Cup of Nations finals – AFCON 2019.
While either Morocco or South Africa are being strongly tipped to host the AFCON 2019 tournament, Congo Brazzaville surprisingly filed their bid to replace Cameroon who were stripped of the hosting rights due to poor preparation.
CAF second vice president, Constant Omari, said Congo had submitted their interest together with another unnamed country. "Congo Brazzaville has already written to organise (AFCON 2019)," Omari told Radio France International.
"Our (CAF) deputy secretary-general Anthony Baffoe told me that he was going to tell me of a second candidate." With CAF statutes dictating that a country that has its hosting rights taken away should be banned from the finals, Omari, however, said Cameroon will still be allowed to continue participating in the qualifiers.
This comes after Comoros wrote to CAF this week seeking Cameroon's expulsion from the AFCON 2019 tournament while citing Article 92 of CAF regulations.
"We did not apply the sanctioning component because we took into account certain factors: there is a country that mobilizes enormous resources, but unfortunately, there are uncertainties linked to the progress of construction sites," Omari said.
"We are not going to punish them twice…Cameroon is not disqualified." Reigning African champions Cameroon face Comoros at home in their final Afcon 2019 qualifier next March and a defeat could see them miss out of the tournament. CAF are expected to announce the Afcon 2019 hosts by the end of this year.