The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has stated that the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be hosted in Cameroon will go ahead as planned despite the spread of Covid-19.
Sporting activity worldwide has been on hold as a result of the pandemic, which has taken nearly 20,000 lives to date. CAF initially announced the postponement of the 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN) indefinitely, after hosts Cameroon had requested the rescheduling of the biennial tournament.
CAF through its acting general secretary Abdelmounaim Bah has, however, stated that the 33rd edition of AFCON which is scheduled to take place from January 9 to February 6 will go an as planned and also hopes that the remaining qualifiers will be completed soon.
"For now, the Africa Cup of Nations is still scheduled for January to February 2021,” Bah told Goal.
“The only reason we would shift Afcon would be a situation that continues into the year 2020, and if this current crisis does not allow us to play all the qualification matches.
"We still have four qualifying days to play and we can play them in two international windows.
“We have four at our disposal: June, September, October, November. At this point, anything is possible.
“If we can’t play matchdays three and four in June, we will play them otherwise in September or October and we will play match days five and six in November."
So far no team other than hosts Cameroon have qualified for the competition, with two of the six qualifying games played. The 48 competing nations have been split into 12 qualifying groups, with the top two in each pool progressing to the finals.
