Following the inability to conclude qualification competition occasioned by the COVID 19 pandemic, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the postponement of next January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon to 2022.
This was announced by CAF’s president Ahmad Ahmad at a news conference on Tuesday.
“This decision was taken due to the uncertainties about the coronavirus health situation and especially because of the scheduling problems since four rounds of qualifiers would need to be fitted into the October and November windows for international matches,” said Ahmad.
Recall that The Cup of Nations was due to be held from January 9-February 6 next year, but will now be scheduled for January 2022.
The Africa Nations Championship, which is the tournament for quasi-national teams made up of locally-based players only, will now be played in January during the period initially planned for the Cup of Nations having been postponed from April this year.
Cameroon will also be asked to stage the semi-finals and final of this year’s African Champions League, CAF’s executive committee decided at a meeting. There will be a single semi-final stage and then the final, likely in September, said the CAF president.
The same procedure will be used for the African Confederation Cup, suspended before the semi-final stage. Its last three games will be staged in Morocco.
“But we have to see what happens with the pandemic and what the situation will be. We have made a decision today but this could all change tomorrow,” added Ahmad.
CAF also decided to scrap this year’s African Women’s Championship as no new host has been found since Congo withdrew last year.
