(CNN)I wasn't surprised the Confederation of African Football (CAF) suspended host Morocco from its most prestigious tournament -- the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) -- as the continent grappled with the Ebola crisis. It is important to take Ebola seriously, but Morocco took too long to make a decision and the North African nation had various options to control the risk, notably preventing fans from West Africa from entering the country. AFCON is still one of the world's most important football tournaments and a sudden cancellation would have been ridiculous. The health of a continent is more important than any football tournament, but given the distance from Morocco to where the disease is most prevalent, the risk posed to the North African nation would have been small.
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2015 Africa Cup of Nations gets under way Saturday
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Equatorial Guinea hosting tournament after Morocco was suspended
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Morocco banned for refusing to host competition due to Ebola fears
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Reigning champion Nigeria did not qualify for 2015 tournament
@placeholder is a huge continent and connections from one country to the other by plane, train or car can be quite complicated and can take hours or even days.