CAF, the Confederation of African football, made a series of decisions today regarding the African game in the post-coronavirus era.
The continental club competitions and national team competitions were suspended in the last few months, and now the teams can prepare for a new beginning.
The CAF Champions League was supposed to be the main event with four of the biggest clubs in the continent. The semifinals were scheduled to feature two clashes between Casablanca and Cairo clubs in two-legged matches – Raja Casablanca against Zamalek and Wydad Casablanca against Al-Ahly. As the teams can barley travel, nor host games, a final four tournament will be held. In CAF’s official statement, the host is yet to be decided - but according to sources, the final four will be played in Douala, Cameroon, the city that was selected to host the CAF Champions League final this year.
The CAF Confederation Cup will be played in the same format. The matches will be played in Morocco, which was initially chosen to host the final this year. One of the semifinals will be an all-Moroccan clash between Berkane and Hassania Agadir. In the second semi-final, Pyramids from Egypt will play against Horoya from Guinea.
An important decision was taken regarding the future of the Africa Cup of Nations. The African main international tournament was scheduled to be played in Cameroon in 2021, but the coronavirus pandemic postponed four out of six qualifying matchdays. After re-arranging both the AFCON qualifiers and the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, CAF decided to postpone the tournament to 2022. The opening match will be on January 8, which means that tournament will be played again in the winter.
Meanwhile, women's football is facing a severe consequence, as the 2020 African Women's Cup of Nations was cancelled. The tournament was scheduled to be played in Nigeria during November and December 2020. It was also supposed to be the first-ever Women's AFCON to feature 12 teams. The qualifiers draw has been already made, but that matches haven't been played. However, CAF did decide to establish the Women's Champions League, which will be played for the first time in 2021.
Under the current circumstances, CAF has taken the best possible decision it could make. The primary issue that African players face, like their counterparts from Europe, is the extensive schedule in the next two years. They will play in the AFCON in January 2022, in the World Cup in December 2022, and then another AFCON in the summer of 2023. They will also need to play 12 qualifiers matches for the 2022 AFCON and World Cup in 13 months. As time will go by, we may see the well-known criticism from Europe again, but this time, the European players may face the same problems.
The fact that CAF decided to cancel the Women's AFCON may be a massive blowout for its attempts to develop women's football in the continent. Unlike the men's equivalent, CAF didn't try to look for new dates in order to play the tournament. Yet, the decision to organize a Women's Champions League tournament can be an essential step for the future of African women's football. Africa becomes the fourth continent to establish such a competition after Europe, South America and Asia.
