Duro Ikhazuagbe
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed indefinitely all AFCON 2021 Match day 3 and 4 qualifiers scheduled for the weekend of March 25th to 31st.
Acting General Secretary of CAF, Abdel Bah, said in a message to member federations involved in the Qualifiers Firday that following the growing concern over the COVID-19 virus and the latest declaration of the World Health Organization (WHO) describing it as a pandemic, CAF Emergency Committee has decided to postpone the following matches until further notice:
“Total AFCON 2021 Qualifiers: Match days 3 and 4 of the qualifiers initially scheduled from 25th to 31st March.
“Also, FIFA Women U-20 World Cup Qualifiers: Initially scheduled from 20-22 March and 27 and the Total Women AFCON 2020 Qualifiers, Initially scheduled from 8th to 14th April.”
He said CAF will announce the new programme in due time.
Concerning the Total African Nations Championship (CHAN 2020) scheduled for Cameroon from 4th to 25th April, the CAF scribe said a delegation from the CAF Medical Committee “is scheduled to visit Cameroon between 14 and 15 March 2020.
“The purpose of this mission is to assess all the preventive measures taken by the Local Organizing Committee, after which a decision will be taken after the inspection visit.”
CAF has also decided to postpone the Match Commissioners Workshop scheduled for the 19th & 20 March until further notice.
“We would like to assure you that CAF is monitoring the situation closely and working with the competent authorities such as the WHO on the impact of the virus in the continent and CAF Competitions,” concludes the statement from CAF yesterday.
Three-time African champions Nigeria’s Super Eagles were scheduled to play Sierra Leone on March 27 at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.
