{"id":38900,"date":"2026-02-13T03:24:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wafcon-2026-gayton-mckenzie-clarifies-claim-south-africa-will-host-finals\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T03:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:24:39","slug":"wafcon-2026-gayton-mckenzie-clarifies-claim-south-africa-will-host-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wafcon-2026-gayton-mckenzie-clarifies-claim-south-africa-will-host-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Wafcon 2026: Gayton McKenzie clarifies claim South Africa will host finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">South Africa&#8217;s sports minister Gayton McKenzie says &#8220;no formal decision has been taken to relocate&#8221; the 2026 Women&#8217;s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) away from Morocco after his deputy announced that South Africa would step in and stage the finals.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McKenzie issued a clarifying statement after Peace Mabe declared the nation &#8220;will be hosting&#8221; the tournament, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/cg7yj2pe9e4o\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">which is scheduled to kick off on 17 March.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;When Morocco said &#8216;We are not able to host&#8217;, South Africa, we said &#8216;Yes, we are available&#8217;. We are going to take it,&#8221; Mabe later told SABC Sport after her announcement at an awards ceremony on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But later in the evening McKenzie said that Morocco &#8220;remains the officially designated host&#8221; of Wafcon 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;[The remarks made] do not constitute a formal confirmation or assumption of hosting responsibilities,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has not yet triggered any alternative hosting process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;South Africa has expressed its willingness to support Caf if required, should alternative hosting arrangements for the 2026 Wafcon become necessary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;These engagements form part of ongoing discussions initiated by Caf as it considers various contingencies in line with [its] responsible stewardship of the continental game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Caf has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c5yd4e6xlx0o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s sports minister Gayton McKenzie says &#8220;no formal decision has been taken to relocate&#8221; the 2026 Women&#8217;s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) away from Morocco after his deputy announced that South Africa would step in and stage the finals. McKenzie issued a clarifying statement after Peace Mabe declared the nation &#8220;will be hosting&#8221; the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38902,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38900\/revisions\/38902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}