Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed the next edition of Africa Cup of Nations which was slated for next year to 2022.
The development has been confirmed on Tuesday from the CAF Executive Committee meeting held via zoom conferencing.
The decision has been influenced by the current global situation in regard to the COVID-19 Pandemic that has seen a number of events or activities either called off or postponed.
With two of the six qualifying rounds played, CAF deemed it possible given the current situation to have the remaining qualification phase and have the biennial tournament in January next year.
Therefore, the CAF Executive Committee decided to postpone AFCON to January, 2022 with Cameroon still retaining the hosting rights.
Read Also: CAF Executive Committee Meeting May Shift AFCON 2021 To 2022, Reschedule Qualifiers
Championship of African Nations (CHAN) which was earlier scheduled for April this year in Cameroon has been postponed to January 2021. CHAN is a tournament that features only locally based players.
The Executive Committee has also taken a decision on the CAF Interclubs, that is Champions League and Confederation Cup.
With the 2019/20 season for the two competitions already at the semi-final stage, CAF has announced that Cameroon and Morocco will host the semi-final and final of the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup respectively.
Both the semifinal and final will be staged on a one-legged basis, changing from the usual format that has been played on home and away.
The 2020 Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) has been cancelled.
It has also been confirmed that the inaugural Africa Women’s Champions League will begin next year.
4 Comments
All very necessary considering the circumstances. Well done CAF
What is wrong with caf, shebi the virus will soon be over, i dont think this postponement is not necesary, if most be they should make it june 2021 not jan 2022, now that europeans start resuming na now una dey start una own, verry wrong decision by wrong people. After 2022 then when will the nest afcon be? 2023 or 2024! I dey miss football jare , enough of coronavirus restrictions, let the living live and let the dead be restricted, Simple.
A world cup year? If Qatar 2022, is not postponed this move will be detrimental to our teams participating in two intense football competitions in addition to Europa, UCL who most of players from the continent participate in, not forgetting their respective leagues. But COVID-19 has brought on us all these disruptions and postponements but our main target as humans is to stay safe and alive first then, our Dear AFCONs,UCLs and World Cups.
A wrong move n wrong timing..d postponement is too far.. Europe are coming up with football activities but Africa is killing it’s own. Too bad