Confederation of African Football President Ahmad arrives in Ethiopia tonight from Burkina Faso for an official working visit.
Ahmad has been in the West African country since Thursday last week where he held talks with the Burkina Faso Football Federation Sita Sangare and the Head of State Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
He also graced the final of the Burkina Faso Women’s Cup on Friday.
The tour emphasized the importance of close working relationship between the federation and government.
“We cannot develop the game without a healthy working collaboration with political authorities,” Ahmad said.
Ahmad’s mission in Addis Ababa is still unclear at this point, however, it is widely expected that Ethiopian Football Federation will grab the opportunity to drum up support for their 2015 Afcon bid.
He is scheduled to meet and hold similar talks with Ethiopia President Mulatu Teshome.
The football mad horn of African nation has been on infrastructural overdrive – laying a formidable foundation for their quest to host of the continental showpiece for the second time.
Over five state of the art stadiums have already been built in the country of over 100 million people. Work on 60,000 capacity Addis Ababa Stadium is well on course.
With Cameroon’s preparedness for the staging of the 2019 Afcon doubtful, Ethiopia has become one of the hot favorites to step in as a fall back option.
Ethiopia could also land the hosting of the highly doubtful Guinea 2023 showpiece.
The recent expansion of the Afcon from 16 to 24, which Cameroon has since challenged at FIFA, means only a few countries with the required infrastructure or extra resources to invest can host the Africa’s prime tournament.
