Coronavirus impact: CAF postpones 2021 AFCON qualifying ties

Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Friday postponed the 2021 Total Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers. Several nations were meant to tussle it it between March 25-31^st in the qualifiers.

But CAF announced that because of the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID -19) which is spreading fast around the world, the qualifiers have been postponed.

Abdel Bah, the Acting CAF Secretary General said the postponement was necessary because of the impact of the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

“As CAF’s top priority remains the health and safety of our stakeholders (players, officials, sponsors, broadcasters, employers etc), we have been monitoring closely, together with our medical committee, the impact of the current Coronavirus crisis,” said Bah.

CAF made it clear that since the Coronavirus has been declared as pandemic by WHO and since several players who were meant to feature in the Afcon qualifier matches come from countries which have been severely affected by the virus especially in Europe and Asia, they had no alternative but to postpone the qualifiers.

“We will share with you a proposal of a new calendar that will be communicated on a second step, according to the evolution of the Coronavirus situation,” said CAF.

CECAFA teams Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania were all meant to be in action in 2021 Afcon qualifying ties.