Cairo's Air Defence Stadium will replace the city's Al-Salam Stadium in the list of the 2019 African Cup of Nations hosting venues, according to the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) spokesman Ahmed Megahed.
"First we offered eight venues for the tournament, but after the visit of CAF delegation we settled on only six," Megahed told ON Sport TV channel late on Saturday.
"Al-Salam Stadium is currently hosting the matches of both Ahly and El-Entag El-Harby alongside other league matches, so the EFA president Hani Abo Rida preferred with other involved parties to replace it with the Air Defence Stadium," he added.
On 12 February, the EFA said that the six stadiums that will host the prestigious African tournament have been shut to be renovated in time for the summer tournament.
Cairo's International Stadium, Ismailia, Alexandria, Port Said, Suez and the newly-selected Air Defence venues are set to host the 24-team tournament.
On 8 January, Egypt was granted hosting rights of the Nations Cup after winning a majority of votes of the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Egypt obtained 16 out of 18 votes, with only one vote going to sole rival South Africa, while the remaining voting country abstained.
The Nations Cup is scheduled to take place from 21 June to 13 July, having been moved from January/February to avoid club-versus-country clashes.
Egypt has hosted four editions of the Nations Cup in 1959, 1974, 1986 and 2006.
The Pharaohs won the last of their record seven titles in 2010.
This year’s edition has seen major changes, with the tournament expanded to 24 teams up from 16, and moved to a summer schedule instead of its former January-February calendar.
