FIFA approves postponement of CAN until January 2022

The FIFA Council Office announced in a statement that it had approved “ unanimously ” by its members the changes to the dates of several competitions, including the 2021 African Cup of Nations (CAN), which is postponed to January 2022, although ” the exact dates ” will be determined later.

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“ The Fifa Council Office unanimously approves new changes to the international match schedules in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, ” FIFA says.

The world body announces the addition of a “ new period (January 2022) for the African Cup of Nations of CAF (African Football Confederation), the exact dates remaining to be determined later ”.

After the edition of the CAN 2019 played in Egypt, the next was to take place in June 2021 in Cameroon, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the African Football Confederation was forced to postpone this competition pending organize the playoffs.

Only two days were organized last November, concerning the CAN qualifiers.

Regarding the changes, FIFA states that they were made following an exhaustive consultation of the parties concerned.

With the confederations and football stakeholders, proposals were made through the working group [réunissant la] Fifa [et les] confederations on Covid-19, arising from the previously agreed principle, according to which it is necessary to adopt a tailor-made and flexible approach at the confederation level, “ recalls the press release.

Fifa is considering the “ replacement of the international window scheduled from August 31 to September 8, 2020 by a window from January 24 to February 1, 2022 for all confederations except UEFA ”.

“This means that there will be no mandatory provision of players for member associations of these confederations in September 2020,” she said.

In addition to CAN, Fifa has decided to ” add new dates for the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup (the preliminary rounds will take place from July 2 to 6, and the final phase from July 10 to August 1), as well than a mandatory availability period starting on June 28, 2021 ”.

For women’s football, the institution in charge of world football announces the ” replacement of the dates of the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament (initially scheduled for July 22 to August 7, 2020) by new dates (July 21 to August 6, 2021), the finalization of the dates of the type I window planned for June-July 2021 (from June 7 to 15, 2021) ”.

Fifa also decided to “ cancel the existing window from September 14 to 22, 2020 for all confederations except UEFA and the addition, in parallel of the existing Type I window from September 13 to September 21, 2021, an alternative Type III window option from September 13 to 25, 2021 for all confederations except UEFA. ”

She also announced the “ finalization of the dates of the existing type II window in June-July 2021 (7-16 June 2021) for all confederations except UEFA, and the abolition of the period currently blocked for the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (23 November-20 December 2020) ”.

Along the same lines, the statement continued, ” the task force [constitué de la] Fifa [et des] confederations on the Covid-19 will continue to monitor the evolution of the situation within each confederation and, if necessary, will submit additional proposals to the FIFA council. ”

APS

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