The country's Ministry of Youth and Sports last week asked the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to postpone the competition, scheduled for January 17 to February 8.

The request was made over fears staging the event on the scheduled dates could risk spreading the Ebola virus, which emanated in the west of Africa in March and has killed more than 4,000 people.

CAF has confirmed it has received the request, but said there are "no changes of schedules" of its competitions and events.

Noting no edition of the Africa Cup of Nations has been rescheduled since the first in 1957, CAF added: "CAF has also been cautions since the commencement of the final round qualifiers of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2015 on the health risks posed by the Ebola virus and has consistently applied precautionary principles, taking into account the recommendations of the World Health Organisation and various medical experts."

The Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 4,000 lives according to the World Health Organisation ©Getty Images


CAF has moved qualifying matches for the tournament out of Sierra Leone and Guinea - two of the countries struggling to contain the outbreak.

Guinea are playing their qualifying matches in Casablanca, Morocco, and Sierra Leone in Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon so far.

The governing body for football in Africa said the request from the Moroccan Government will be discussed at its next Executive Committee meeting on November 2 in Algiers, Algeria.

Following that, a meeting will be held between the CAF and chiefs in Morocco in Rabat the following day.

The CAF delegation will be led by its President Issa Hayatou.