By Mark Chumba

Angola, a rich South-West African country stretching on the Atlantic Ocean, has set standards few South of Sahara will match to host the African Cup of Nations.

It is also going to be very difficult for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide on the basis of bids the future hosts of ACN starting 2016 of which Kenya has shown interest.

"A lot of things will be put into consideration before the host nations are announced,"` an executive committee member of CAF told Golden Ball. And there is a possibility CAF will also change the years of the events starting in 2014. Something is being worked on and it will be announced soon," the official who did not want to be quoted said.

One of the pertinent issues CAF has experienced in Angola and will be a key factor, as it has always been — will be a full Government engagement with a proper proposal on how funding of the competition will be done "without the risk of backing out with only two years to the competition."

The level of organisation in ACN has grown and the financial aspect is a big issue. Angola won the hosting rights in 2006 during the General Assembly in Cairo. The Angola FA had a huge delegation which included Government officials, FA, technocrats and businessmen.

By that time, Angola was still coming out of a 25-year war which had ruined the entire infrastructure in this country of 17 million people, but bigger in size than Kenya. There was fears that this rich West-South African nation will host the event of such magnitude at a short period when there was only one stadium in Luanda.

CAF had gambled. But the gamble has paid off, as Angola have organised an event that has succeeded far beyond expectations.

Angola has spent a fortune, that few countries in Africa can think of. When they won the bid, they promised to put up four new stadia and renovate the small stadia in the regions to satisfy CAF requirements.

Work did not start on time because of domestic issues which had to be sorted out. However, the Government engagement was solid without any complications. The Government took the championship as its own project and the chairman of the FA Fernandes Justino enjoyed the full backing of all the Goverment departments without facing obstacles, party patronage, and useless political intrigues.

Once the President of Angola Engineer Jose Eduardo Dos Santos gave his word, there was no contradiction and all Ministries and departments had to play their roles.