The AFCON competition may have to be extended yet again but the reason for the potential postponement is unclear
The African cup of Nations is Africa’s major tournament and the 33rd edition of the competition is set to get on the way in January 2022, as Algeria hopes to defend the title they won in 2019. But there have been recent doubts about the continuity of the AFCON tournament.
Although there has not been any formal announcement as regards the potential cancellation of the International tournament. But the AFCON organizer would have to put the safety and logical plans of the participants into consideration.
There are several reports already, that there is uncertainty about the tournament and that CAF could postpone the event yet again.
According to the BBC, the speculations of a possible cancellation have been dismissed by CAF’s director of communication Alex Siewe, as he says: “We can’t keep spending time dealing with rumors.”
Also, a spokesman for Cameroon’s ministry of sports told Filgoal: “The minister of sports met Samuel Eto’o and affirmed that the country is ready to host the tournament and refute all those reports that we can’t host it.
“We will tell the CAN that we refuse the hypothesis of postponement if they ask us, we have a great will to host the tournament on time.”
The recent rise in Omicron Covid-19 Variant cases is a major danger for the continuation of the AFCON competition. The tournament has already been a victim of time extension due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Players from different leagues, including the Premier League, are expected to join the African cup of nations and it has further raised concerns about how their participation in the tournament will affect the club season.
As regards the release of International players, the European Club Association (ECA) had released a letter to FIFA demanding to withhold players from the tournament if a good plan for the medical and operational protocol was not presented.
However, the ECA, which represents the top clubs across Europe, has beckoned on AFCON to respect the five-day quarantine rule that FIFA has placed on players returning from international duty.
The ECA told FIFA in a letter which was obtained by AFP: “With regards to applicable protocols, as far as we are aware, CAF has not yet made available a suitable medical and operational protocol for the AFCON tournament, in the absence of which clubs will not be able to release players for the tournament.”
Meanwhile, the spokesman for Cameroon’s ministry of sport also added: “It’s a plot against us, and [ECA’s] statement contains wrong information. They say Covid is widespread in Cameroon, what about the UK that recorded till now 10 million and more infections and has more than 147,000 deaths, while we only recorded less than 110,000 infections and less than 1500 deaths.
“We play the league here normally, we are ready to host the tournament on time and the CAF committee have seen this in their last visit and were overwhelmed.”
