FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar for Africa qualifiers pushed forward

The qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2022 for Africa have been postponed. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced the changes today.

“The CAF Emergency Committee, in conjunction with FIFA decided to postpone the CAF qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 that were due to be played in June 2021 after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams,” said the communication from CAF.

CAF explained the qualifiers will now be played during the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.

“CAF is reassessing it’s protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of COVID-19 related protocols, including specifically focusing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows,” added the communication.

This is the second time the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar qualifiers for Africa are being postponed after the matches were meant to be played in March 2022.

The teams in the CECAFA region still in contention for a place at the FIFA World Cup 2022 include; Djibouti, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania.