African soccer World Cup June qualifiers postponed

African soccer World Cup qualifiers postponed

JOHANNESBURG, May 7 (ANA) – The African soccer World Cup qualifiers on Thursday were postponed by the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa).

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) Emergency Committee, in consultation with Fifa, decided to postpone the Caf qualifiers for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

The matches were due to be played in June this year after taking into consideration the current challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams.

The qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.

Caf is reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of Covid-related protocols, including specific focusing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows.

Full details on the updated match schedule will be provided in due course.

The announcement comes after new Caf president Patrice Motsepe and Fifa president Gianni Infantino earlier in the week, paid a visit to Ivory Coast ahead of its hosting of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Central to their two-day itinerary were meetings with government and football officials, with the focus on promoting unity and serenity, developing and strengthening the country’s football governance and launching the continent’s inaugural pan-African inter-school football championship in Abobo, a municipality just outside the country’s capital Abidjan.

On Wednesday, Motsepe announced a 10 million US dollar donation from his Motsepe foundation to the Fifa-Caf Pan-African School Championship. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman