Angola to stage 2010 Nations Cup

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Angola have won the right to host the 2010 African Nations Cup finals, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have announced.

In an unusual move, CAF also awarded the two tournaments after that, to two of the losing countries.

The 2012 Nations Cup finals will be jointly hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, while Libya were awarded the 2014 tournament after losing four successive bids.

CAF's 13-man executive heard submissions in Cairo on Monday from four final candidates to host the 2010 event. Nigeria were the other bidding country.

The committee were then supposed to vote at the end of a nine-month bidding process but CAF secretary-general Mustapha Fahmy said it was an unanimous decision that Angola host the 2010 edition and that the 2012 and 2014 tournaments be designated at the same time too.

Angola becomes the first Portuguese-speaking country to host the 16-team finals. They intend building four new stadiums for the event, including a major revamp of the Cidadela stadium in the capital Luanda, which has been partly condemned for the last three years.

Equatorial Guinea and Gabon had also proposed four venues -- Bata and Malabo in the former Spanish colony and Libreville and Port Gentil in oil-rich Gabon.

Gabon pulled out of hosting this year's eight-team African women's championship because of a lack of facilities and funds.

Libya hosted the event in 1982 and had losing bids for the 2004, 2006 and 2008 finals, which are to be held in Ghana.

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