Morocco
have been banned from the next two African Nations Cups and fined $1 million
(656,000 pounds) for pulling out of hosting this year's competition, the
Confederation of African Football has announced.
CAF
also ordered the Moroccan Football Federation to pay compensation of eight
million euros (5.9 million pounds) for losses sustained by CAF, its
stakeholders and partners as a result of its decision not to host the
tournament.
Morocco
pulled out of hosting the tournament due to the Ebola epidemic, with Equatorial
Guinea stepping in at short notice to stage it.
Morocco
in October requested to postpone the tournament by a year before failing to
respond to a CAF deadline in November to confirm whether they would go ahead
with hosting.
After
a meeting of the CAF executive committee in Malabo on Friday, the federation
said in a statement: "Morocco had based its request to postpone the
tournament by a year on 10 October 2014, on allegations 'of the highest health
risk'.
Morocco cited the outbreak of the Ebola virus as a case of force majeure
in justifying its request for postponement, citing in particular the risk of
contamination of its population because of anticipated fans' flows.
"CAF
raised objections and inadmissibility of Morocco's request who were obliged to
state their position of withdrawal from the organisation of the 2015 Orange
Africa Cup of Nations by 11 November 2014.
"The
executive committee considered that, contrary to what the Royal Moroccan
Football Federation cited, force majeure cannot be accepted for the benefit of
the federation."
CAF
also confirmed the punishments, which see Morocco banned from the 2017 and 2019
editions of the African Nations Cup.
They
won the competition in 1976 and were beaten finalists in 2004, but have since
failed to progress beyond the first round.
Source: http://www.espnfc.com
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