African football leaders will hold a videoconference on Tuesday to discuss solutions available to them to resume football on the continent following the long hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The discussions, led by the president of the African Football Confederation (CAF) Ahmad Ahmad, will focus on the African Cup of Nations (CAN) in 24 countries, which is to be held from January 9 to February 6, 2021 in Cameroon.
“We sincerely hope that the African Cup of Nations will be held as planned in January and February next,” said CAF secretary general Abdelmounaim Bah.
However, the CAN qualifications could not be completed, and one option considered would be to have them complete in October and November. This would cause a further postponement of the start of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, initially scheduled to start in March and initially postponed to October. These qualifications should not start until 2021, after the CAN.
The African Championship of Nations – which involves national teams made up of players from their home countries – the CAF Champions League and the Confederation Cup should also be mentioned.
These last two competitions, African equivalents of the Champions League and the Europa League, were interrupted in March at the semi-finals. Scenarios for playing these semi-finals and the finals either in August or in September are on the table.
African countries have suffered to varying degrees from the coronavirus pandemic. South Africa is, among all sub-Saharan countries, the one that suffered the most with 131,800 cases including 2,413 deaths according to the latest figures.
With the exception of Burundi, all African countries interrupted their competitions in March, as did most of the countries on the planet.
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