The 2019 African Cup of Nations tournament has been pushed back by a week to enable Muslim players to rest after the Holy month of Ramadan, BBC reports. The Tournament Director and former Egypt International, Mohamed Fadl, announced the adjustment of the date.
According to him, the change of date on Saturday was due to requests from North African Nations including Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco who want their players to rest after the Ramadan.
Ramadan this year is expected to start at the beginning of May and end in early June. The tournament, which was to kick off on June 15 to July 13, has now been shifted to June 21 to July 19, at Egypt.
This year’s Africa Cup of Nations will for the first time feature 24 teams instead of the usual 16.
