As the African Cup of Nations 2021 concludes it has been evident how the Host Nation Cameroon have benefited from having the tournament in their country.
Being the host of the AFCON Cameroon has benefited both on and off the pitch from hosting the continent's biggest sporting event, with building of stadiums and also attracting tourists from different parts of the world, who visited to sample what the West African nation has to offer.
TeamKenya takes a look at the missed opportunities Kenya had back in 1996 after they were chosen to host the prestigious African tournament.
In 1993, Kenya had been chosen to host the 1996 AFCON, which brought delight to the public who were overjoyed with the chance of seeing the African stars battle for the trophy.
In 2017, the then Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Issa Hayatou noted that the late President Daniel Moi personally wrote to him to confirm that Kenya would not host the tournament.
Later on, that led to Kenya being banned from the next two AFCON tournaments and the event was awarded to South Africa.
“Then President Daniel Moi wrote to me saying Kenya was not ready. Morocco and South Africa were ready for the challenge and eventually we settled on South Africa. It was an amazing tournament inspired by the late president Nelson Mandela,” Hayatou stated previously.
The then Government was opposed to constructing the new stadiums needed in Nairobi and Mombasa in fear of popularising the opposition side.
Again in 2014 Kenya won the bid to host Africa's second tier tournament, African Nations Championship (CHAN).
However, in 2017 it was announced that the country would not be able to host the tournament because of lack of preparedness for the event that took place January 2018.
By missing these opportunities to host the tournaments the country misses on football development, the hospitality industry suffers and the National team morale drops.