The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has moved next year’s Africa Cup of Nations to 2022 due to the covid-19 pandemic, stating clearly that ‘health was the main priority’.
This was announced on Tuesday by the President of the CAF, Ahmad Ahmad, in a video conference.
The CAF Champions will complete its matches in September 2020 while the Confederation cup will wrap up its final four this year in Morocco. These two competitions were interrupted ahead of the semi-finals in March 2020 due to the pandemic.
Countries in Africa have suffered different degrees of setbacks from the coronavirus pandemic with Nigeria recording a total of 25,694 infections and hardest-hit countries like South Africa and Egypt recording 144,000 and 66,000 cases respectively.
The CAF President also announced the cancellation of the Women’s Cup of Nations scheduled for November 2020, adding that ‘the peak of the pandemic has not been reached yet’. The launch of a new club competition for 2021 was also revealed during the video conference.
Ahmad said; “I am expressing my pride in seeing the birth of a women’s Champions League on the African continent’’.
