Breaking News: Gabon beats Ghana to win rights to host 2017 Africa Cup of Nations

CAF

Ghana has missed out on hosting the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations after CAF announced Gabon as the hosts of Africa's flagship competition following a vote of the CAF Executive Committee. 

As predicted by Ghana's leading football website, GHANAsoccernet.com, Gabon was hugely favoured to win the tournament after the country's president Ali Bongo became involved with intensive campaigning for the past three months.

They beat Ghana and Algeria to the hosting rights of the 31st edition of the Cup of Nations.

Ghana lost the bid to host the competition despite a last-minute push to capture from the bid committee led by the GFA federation Kwesi Nyantakyi who is a member of the CAF Executive Committee.

CAF did not make details of the voting immediately available.

Gabon beat rival bids from Algeria and Ghana in a vote by the Confederation of African Football's (CAF) executive committee at a meeting in Cairo.

Gabon replaces war-torn Libya, who withdrew last year as 2017 hosts because of the civil conflict raging in the country.

It will be the second time that the country will stage the finals after co-hosting the 2012 edition with neighbours Equatorial Guinea.

Gabon will use four venues for the 16-team tournament, set for January 2017.

They will be Libreville and Franceville, which were used in 2012, plus Port Gentil and Oyem where the stadiums will be ready in 14 months, Gabon Football Federation officials said.

All three candidate countries made presentations to the CAF executive committee on Wednesday before the ballot was taken.

CAF have already designated the hosts of the 2019 (Cameroon), 2021 (Ivory Coast) and 2023 finals (Guinea).

Libya was initially scheduled to host the event in 2013, but swapped that tournament with South Africa to give it more time to be ready.

The North African nation conceded last August that it still wouldn't be able to organize the 16-team event in 2017 and pulled out citing security concerns, forcing CAF to restart the bidding process.

Egypt was among the four final contenders but withdrew to support its fellow North African bid from Algeria.