The Confederation of African Football (CAF) awarded the tournament to Egypt over Nigeria, even in the face of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak earlier this year and the significant football crowd violence that the country is experiencing.

Earlier this year the Egyptian League was suspended after a pitch invasion at the end of an African champions league game between Cairo outfit Zamalek and Tunisia's Club Africain.


And in June there was more trouble when Degla scored a last minute winner in a Premier League clash away to Al Ittihad, prompting the home crowd to throw plastic bottles and launch a pitch invasion.

The draw for the tournament, which runs from November 26 to December 10, takes place in Cairo next month, and will involve eight countries - Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

They will be paired into two groups of four, with the winners of both groups qualifying for London along with the best runner-up.

The other runner-up will play a team from Asia in a play-off, scheduled to be at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry next spring, to qualify for the Olympics.

Egypt, who have won the last three African Nations Cup competitions, have represented Africa at the Olympics ten times.

The decision comes a week after the Egyptians announced that they would be fielding a youth team in their remaining African Nations Cup qualifiers against Niger and Sierra Leone, effectively giving up on qualification for the continental tournament to concentrate on the Olympic Games.

The decision will also disappoint Nigeria, who have been overlooked for a number of tournaments recently.

In 2006 Nigeria was the only candidate to lose out in the decision on hosts for the 2010, 2012 and 2013 African Nations Cups, which were awarded to Angola, Gabon/Equatorial Guinea and Libya respectively.

Nigeria was assured that it would be a backup candidate if any of those countries were unable to host the tournaments, and are aggrieved that the rebel insurgency in Libya is threatening their staging of the competition, with CAF now considering a number of other countries as possible replacements.

CAF wrote to the President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari, to explain the decision to award Egypt the Olympic tournament.

"CAF had engaged since last March advanced discussions with the Egyptian FA and the Egyptian Government to organise this tournament," said a CAF statement.

"In consideration of the situation in Egypt and after having received all required guarantees, the Egyptian Government showed strong will to organise this event in order to highlight to Africa and the World that the situation in Egypt has greatly improved.

"Due to this engagement and need, CAF decided to give a chance to Egypt, while reiterating our engagement to stay by your side for future opportunities."

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