The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed all 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches billed to hold this June due to, among other reasons, the current challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
The continent’s governing body for football reached the decision at its emergency committee meeting on Thursday and issued a statement to that effect.
”The CAF Emergency committee, in consultation with FIFA ,decided to postpone the CAF qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 that were due to be played in June 2021 after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all paticipating teams,’ read the statement released by the Communications department of the body.
This means the four group C games billed hold between June 5 and June 14 will now be shifted. Nigeria is scheduled to host Liberia while Central African Republic host Cape Verde between June 5 and 8 while the June 11-14 window will have the Super Eagles travelling to Cape Verde while Liberia play host to Central African Republic.
CAF says the games will now hold on the next FIFA windows.
”The qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021 and March 2022.”
The statement also says CAF is reassessing its protocols and proceses to enhance implementation of Covid-related protocols, including specifically focussing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows.