CAF postpones 2021 AFCON by a year over Covid-19

Next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon has been postponed until 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Confederation of African Football announced Tuesday in a video conference.

CAF president Ahmad Ahmad said African football’s governing body took the decision as “health was the main priority”.

African countries have suffered to varying degrees from the pandemic with South Africa the hardest hit among those south of the Sahara, recording more than 144,000 cases, while Egypt has suffered the worst in North Africa with over 66,000 infections.

“The peak of the pandemic has not been reached yet,” Ahmad added.

The CAF Champions League will round up its matches in September while the Confederation Cup will wrap up towards the end of this year with a ‘Final Four’ expected to take place in Morocco.

These last two competitions were interrupted in March ahead of the semi-finals phase.

READ ALSO: Nigeria can’t win 2021 AFCON – Gernot Rohr

Ahmad also announced the cancellation of the women’s Cup of Nations which was scheduled to take place in November while revealing the launch of a new club competition for 2021.

“I am expressing my pride in seeing the birth of a women’s Champions League on the African continent,” the CAF president, who faced allegations of sexual misconduct last year, said.

Last week, FIFA pledged $1.5 billion in grants and loans as a relief fund to help national and continental federations in stemming the economic downturn with the halting of football since the start of the pandemic.

Other regional football competitions slated to be played this summer have also been delayed such as the European Championship and Copa America.

This month saw the muted return of prominent European leagues, such as the English Premier League, with matches played in empty stadiums.

VANGUARD

The post CAF postpones 2021 AFCON by a year over Covid-19 appeared first on Vanguard News.

by Emmanuel Okogba via Vanguard News https://ift.tt/31yoffZ Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia

Comments

Hundreds of protesters storm Seplat oil facility in Delta

By Paul Olayemi Hundreds of protesters from Ikweghwu community in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State, stormed a crude oil facility owned by Seplat Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, on Thursday morning, demanding for jobs and infrastructure development. The protesters, who stormed the facility as early as 6 am, lamented that they were not benefiting from the community’s oil wealth, and demanding an end to what they tagged, oppression and intimidation from the management of the company, ALSO READ: Protesters storm Ebonyi court over judge’s recusal from PDP case The protesters with inscriptions like ‘ we can’t be suffering in our own land’, ‘we need our Memorandum of understanding now’ ‘We need access control’ ‘8 years of slavery, we say no’ and so on, on their placards, danced at the company’s entrance with a DJ providing music non-stop preventing access to the facility. President General of the Community, Comrade David Uyelaju, said they need a clearly written Mem

COVID-19: 10m cases globally, as US, Europe account for over 50 percent

More than 10 million cases of the new coronavirus have been officially declared around the world, half of them in Europe and the United States, according to an AFP tally at 0930 GMT Sunday, June 28, based on official sources. At least 10,003,942 infections, including 498,779 deaths, have been registered globally. Europe remains the hardest hit continent with 2,637,546 cases including 195,975 fatalities, while the United States has 2,510,323 infections including 125,539 deaths. ALSO READ: COVID-19: Women’s jobs disproportionately affected, more to go — ILO Boris Johnson’s government is set to ease virus lockdown restrictions by opening pubs, restaurants and hairdressers among others across England from July, despite predictions of a second wave. The rate of infections worldwide continues to rise, with one million new cases recorded in just six days. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probab

COVID19: No request from Nigerians abroad for evacuation ― Foreign Minister

Minister, Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says his ministry has not received any request from Nigerians aboard for their evacuation in view of the global Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic outbreak. Onyeama made this known on Tuesday in Abuja at the Presidential Task Force briefing on update of COVID-19 in the country. “As of now, we do not have any request from any of the embassies from Nigerians wishing to be evacuated from various countries. “But certainly, if we receive notification from any of our embassies, we will react accordingly,” he said. The minister, responding to an allegation, said it was not true that a Nigerian lady and her husband were poorly treated in Lome, Togo, while on their way back from Brazil, through Addis Ababa, to the country. He said that the Government of Togo was placing anyone coming from a foreign country in isolation, saying that they were rightly placed in a four-star hotel. “They wer

Lastday

Search This Blog