The CAF Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, June 30 2020 is expected to face a tough session during which it will come up with a new schedule/timetable for the next Africa Cup of Nations as the original January 9 to February 6 2021 in Cameroon is no longer feasible due to FIFA’s recent alteration of men’s international football calendar, Completesports.com reports.
The current coronavirus pandemic around the world has forced the world football governing body, FIFA, to tighten precautionary measures in the regions of some of its member associations, including Africa, with postponement of more football fixtures and competitions.
FIFA Council last week Wednesday, approved five critical proposals presented by it’s COVID-19 FIFA-Confederations Working Group, and the implication is that CAF and the likes of AFC [Asia], Concacaf [North/Central America and Caribbean] and the OFC [Oceania] will do a lot of reorganisation in their respective calendars.
The changes that affects CAF and co, according to FIFA include; “To move the intercontinental play-offs for the 2022 World Cup from March 2022 to June 2022;
“To postpone the September 2020 window for the AFC, CAF, Concacaf and the OFC;
“To extend the June 2021 window by seven days for the AFC, CAF, Concacaf and the OFC in order to facilitate the playing of four games instead of the current two.”
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It’s understood that CAF chiefs are already considering an option of postponing the AFCON 2021 tournament until 2022 due to the changes in the men’s FIFA international football windows which have truncated the original AFCON 2021 World Cup qualifying fixtures.
Only two rounds of fixtures have been played in the 2021 AFCON qualifies, with the matches for March, June and September 2020 international windows already been truncated by the postponements.
The 2022 World Cup African qualifiers earlier shifted from March to October/November 2020 may also may be affected again as CAF reschedules its calendar.
The CAF Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday will be staged via video conference has a long list of items on the agenda as shown below.
CAF Executive Committee Meeting Agenda
*WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
I. ROLL CALL
II. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD IN DOHA (QATAR) ON 14 FEBRUARY 2020
III. RATIFICATION OF DECISIONS OF THE CAF EMERGENCY COMMITTEE
1. Acceptance of the resignation of the previous General Secretary Mr. Mouad HAJJI and appointment of the Acting General Secretary Mr. Abdelmounaïm BAH.
2. Selection of Host Countries for the finals of the Inter-Club Competitions.
3. Postponement of CAF Competitions and 42nd CAF Ordinary General Assembly due to COVID-19.
4. Approval of financial measures in response to COVID-19 crisis.
IV. REORGANISATION OF CAF ADMINISTRATION: Confirmation of the appointment of
Commercial Director
V. COMPETITIONS
1. Continuation of the qualifiers and Final Tournament of the Total Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Cameroon 2021
2. Total African Nations Championship Cameroon 2020
3. Resumption of 2019/2020 Inter-Clubs Competitions
4. Women’s Football
* Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2020
* Creation of CAF Women’s Champions League.
5. Zonal Qualifiers: AFCON U-17 Morocco 2021 and U-20 Mauritania 2021
6. AFCON Beach Soccer 2020 and CAF representatives to the next Beach Soccer World Cup.
VI. FINANCE: ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS IN RESPONSE TO CoVID-19 CRISIS
VII. UPDATE OF THE IMPLIMENTATION OF “TRANSFORM CAF 2021” ROADMAP
VIII. UPDATE ON THE HEADQUARTERS AGREEMENT BETWEEN CAF AND THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT
IX. 2020 ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND 2021 ELECTIVE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
X. CAF AWARDS 2020
XI. A.O.B.
XII. DATE AND VENUE OF THE NEXT MEETING
