Africa Cup of Nations become latest victim of the pandemic

Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to be held in January next year in Cameroon has been postponed by one year.

The event will now take place in 2022, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided. The decision has been taken in the wake of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 health crisis has delayed football across most of the continent since March and left little time to complete the qualification competition, said CAF president Ahmad Ahmad at a news conference.

The Cup of Nations was due to be held from Jan. 9-Feb. 6 next year but will now be scheduled for January 2022.

“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.

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.