Algeria fans hoping to land hosting rights of 2013 CAN

Algeria is the latest country to officially declare interest in hosting the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

Officials of the  north African state have now joined South Africa in trying to host the event which was originally scheduled to take place in Libya.

“It might help in our bid to qualify for the next World Cup finals,” federation spokesman Abdelkader Berdja told reporters at a weekend press conference.

South Africa, which will host the 2017 tournament, has already announced its intention to offer itself as a substitute for the Libyans, should their civil conflict not end shortly.

The next Nations Cup finals are to be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon next year after which they move from every even year to every odd, starting just 12 months later in Libya.

The 2015 finals are in Morocco and the 2017 tournament awarded to South Africa, who hosted last year’s World Cup.

South Africa in April stepped in to replace Libya as hosts of this year’s African Youth Championships.

Libyan league football has been suspended since mid-February but clubs continued to play in continental club competitions, by forfeiting their right to play their home leg in knockout ties, which were reduced to a single match at their opponent’s home ground.

Not surprisingly, no Libyan side got past the third round of the African Champions League and African Confederation Cup preliminaries.

Libya’s national team used Mali as their home ground in the Nations Cup qualifier in March and played in the Comoros Islands last month.

But Libya have withdrawn their team from the All-Africa Games qualifier this weekend, handing opponent Egypt a bye into the final tournament in Maputo in September.

A definite decision on the 2013 CAN host will be made in the next Caf executive meeting in September.