CAPE TOWN – The Africa Cup of Nations finals set for Cameroon from January 9 until February 6 next year have been postponed by a year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on Tuesday.
The Cup of Nations qualifying is still far from complete and national team football on the continent is not due to resume before October.
CAF’s executive committee met in an online conference on Tuesday and decided to postpone the final to January/February 2022 in Cameroon.
The continent’s football governing body also made some huge decisions regarding the future of other competitions.
The African Nations Championship (CHAN) which was initially scheduled for April this year has also been moved to 2021.
The 2020 Women’s AFCON has been scrapped completely to make way for the launch of the African Women’s Champions League in 2021.
In relation to inter-club competitions, the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup semi-finals will no longer be contested over two-legs for home and away fixtures.
CAF Champions League semi-finals will be held in Cameroon, in September, while the CAF Confederation Cup will be hosted in Morocco.
There are still four rounds of AFCON qualifiers to play and although they could yet be scheduled for October and November, that would mean having to postpone the start of the group phase of 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
The postponement of the AFCON finals could see a fixture pile-up that would test both players and their clubs.
Here is the finals calendar:
CHAN: January 2021
Olympics: Summer 2021
AFCON: January 2022
2022 World Cup Qualifiers and Finals: 2022
AFCON 2023 Qualifiers and Finals: 2023
