Soccer-Liberia allowed to host internationals as Ebola threat recedes

CAPE TOWN, May 22 (Reuters) - Liberia can host international soccer matches again after being declared free of the deadly Ebola virus, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said on Friday. CAF, however, said the bans on Guinea and Sierra Leone would remain in place. Liberia was earlier this month declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO), who wrote to CAF to suggest international football could safely resume. The decision to lift the ban on playing international matches in the country comes just weeks before the start of the 2017 African Nations Cup qualifiers. Liberia's first home game is scheduled for September when they host Tunisia. Guinea and Sierra Leone will still be forced to play their home games outside of their respective countries with new cases of the disease still being discovered. "WHO confirms that the situation of the Ebola epidemic in Guinea and Sierra Leone requires that CAF keeps its precautionary principle, and asks the concerned teams to organise their matches on a neutral ground," CAF said in a statement. Sierra Leone played their home matches in the qualifiers for the 2015 Nations Cup in Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, while Guinea went north to Morocco. According to WHO, more than 11,000 people have lost their lives in the Ebola outbreak in west Africa since the first reported case in March 2014, with Liberia suffering the most deaths. (Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Toby Davis)