Izuchukwu OkosiNigeria’s hopes of co-hosting the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations with Benin Republic went crashing down on Wednesday afternoon as the Confederation of African Football elected to hand the hosting rights of the tournament to the Eastern African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, Prime Business Africa reports.
The Nigerian delegation comprising of the Sports minister, John Enoh, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Ismaila Abubakar; President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau; General Secretary of NFF, Mohammed Sanusi and; Project Coordinator, Mainasara Illo, and joined by Nigeria’s FIFA Council Member and Member of the CAF Executive Committee, Amaju Melvin Pinnick put together a great effort in bidding for the tournament.
However, the men left the Cairo Marriott Hotel, venue of the CAF Executive Committee meeting disappointed by the decision of CAF.
The awarding of the hosting rights to East African countries means the tournament will return to the African region after 51 years when Ethiopia hosted in 1976.
Significantly, it was the time that the the 2025 hosts, Morocco won the competition which was the first and the only one played throughout using the league format.
The East African bid upstaged the joint bid of Nigeria and Benin, which appeared dead on arrival, even before the votes.
Also beaten were those of Botswana, Egypt and Senegal. Algeria were also a candidate but withdrew on Tuesday.
Kenya had previously been awarded the hosting in 1996 but were stripped because of poor preparation. South Africa got in as a replacement.
Kenya only recently had a long FIFA ban for government interference in the running of their football federation lifted.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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