Hosts for two future African Nations Cup finals tournaments will be decided on Saturday when the Confederation of African Football picks the venues for both the 2019 and 2021 finals.
Two will be chosen by a vote of CAF’s executive committee, who have been meeting in the Ethiopian capital this week.
The bidding process for the 2019 and 2021 finals – including inspection visits – have been completed.
CAF continue to insist on holding the Nations Cup every two years, having recently changed it from every even to every odd year, as it believes it offers much needed competition to many of its poorer members, who are strapped for cash but because engaged in competition are able to solicit much needed funds from government coffers to keep their national teams active.
CAF also used a similar philosophy in choosing past Nations Cup hosts, favouring countries with little infrastructure so that stadiums, training pitches and centres for players are built because of the incentive of hosting a major tournament.
But CAF’s last finals were in South Africa, which used existing stadiums built for the 2010 World Cup. Morocco host the next finals in early 2015.
Of the five bidders, Cameroon were previously hosts in 1972, the Ivory Coast in 1984 and Algeria in 1990.
The winning bids are set to be announced at 15h00 GMT in Addis Ababa on Saturday.