CAF postpones 2021 AFCON tournament to 2022

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed the Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for January/February 2021 to January/February 2022 in Cameroon in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, footballmadeinghana.com can confirm.

This follows an online conference by the Executive Committee of the continent’s football governing body held on Tuesday to decide the future of the competition.

Football activities on the continent and around the world have been halted for the past three months by the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting the qualification matches for the tournament which were to be held in March and June with four rounds of qualifiers to play.

FIFA took a decision last week to cancel September’s window for national team matches in all regions, except Europe and South America.

Hence, qualifying for the 2021 AFCON was still be far from complete, and national team football on the continent was not due to resume anytime soon.

The decision left CAF with fewer dates to try and complete the competition’s qualifying campaign and then finalize the field for the 24-team flagship football tournament in Africa.