U20 AFCON: Côte d'Ivoire Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Participate – Omari Criticizes CAF

U20 AFCON: Côte d'Ivoire Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Participate – Omari Criticizes CAF

Sampson Adedeji

Former interim president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Constant Omari, has condemned the decision to allow Côte d'Ivoire to participate in the U20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), BSNSports.com.ng reports.

The Junior Elephants were eliminated during the WAFU B regional qualifiers, which should have ruled them out of the tournament.

However, when no country stepped forward to host the competition, CAF offered Côte d'Ivoire the opportunity to stage it—on the condition that their U20 team would be allowed to participate.

Omari strongly opposed the decision, arguing that it was unfair and lacked proper planning.

"An AFCON hosted by Côte d'Ivoire, the U20 AFCON—when did we decide on the host country for the final phase of the competition’s progress? The qualifiers had already started, and we didn’t know who the host would be," he said.

"It was only towards the end that we began searching for a host. There were 12 qualified teams—Côte d'Ivoire was not one of them."

"Then we asked Côte d'Ivoire to organize the tournament. They agreed, but only if their U20 team could compete."

"That makes it 13 teams. Is that normal? Is that proper planning? Let’s not pretend to be managing things efficiently when we clearly aren’t," Omari concluded.