Coronavirus: Eto'o, Diouf, Guedioura plead for a postponement of CAN 2021

Text by: Tom Rossi Follow

After the Olympic Games, Euro football or Copa America, the Covid-19 pandemic could threaten another major international sports competition: the African Cup of Nations (CAN), scheduled for January 9 to February 6, 2021 , in Cameroon. Several figures of African football like Samuel Eto'o, speak out for his postponement.

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The sport may not be finished with the postponements. The repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic could still be felt for several months, threatening the organization of the CAN, scheduled from January 9 to February 6, 2021, in Cameroon.

The deadline is still distant, but already, one of the great ambassadors of this CAN on Cameroonian soil, Samuel Eto'o, pleads for a postponement. “ The most important thing is health, and the authorities of African football have understood this. I do not see my elder, big brother Ahmad (President of CAF) risking the health of football lovers for a CAN ” , declared the former captain of the Indomitable Lions on France 24 , Monday, April 27.

Eleven days earlier, on RFI, the former Senegalese international El Hadji Diouf even deemed its organization "  impossible  " on the initial dates. Then, Wednesday April 29, Adlène Guedioura, 2019 African champion with Algeria, gave a layer on the BBC: "I know that the African Cup of Nations is important and it's good for the countries of organize it, but I think the next one should be canceled or postponed . "

Playoffs under threat

Beyond the health risk, it is the impossibility of organizing the continuation of the qualifications for CAN 2021 which worries and could push its postponement. CAF has already been forced to postpone the third, fourth and fifth days scheduled for March and June. The body hopes to be able to play them in September and October, even if it means postponing the qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup.

However, FIFA plans to cancel all the international meetings scheduled for September, October and November to avoid travel abroad and give priority to club competitions. In this case, CAF would have no choice but to shift CAN 2021. But when?

The summer of 2021 promises to be already overloaded with the postponement of the Euro and the Copa America. The multiplication of matches on three continents would risk having a very negative impact on CAN audiences. And then, CAF, under the impulse of its president Ahmad Ahmad - not yet officially candidate for his re-election in 2021 - had decided, last January, to organize the competition in winter, for climatic reasons. The month of June, not being favorable for the practice of football in Cameroon. A beautiful puzzle in perspective that could encourage us to think about a postponement to 2022, the year of a World Cup with new dates (November 21 to December 18, in Qatar).

CAN 2021, a cursed edition?

Asked about the possibility of a staggered CAN, Abdelmounaïm Bah, the Acting Secretary General of CAF, replied to RFI on April 2  : "At this stage, everything is possible" . The Vice-president of the body, Constant Omari, he, on April 16 in Jeune Afrique , assured working “in relation to FIFA” on the establishment of “a universal calendar” .

After the change of host country in 2019 (Egypt), the delays on the dates, and now, the hypothesis of a postponement, rarely an African Cup (in Cameroon) will not have made as much talk of it before its kick-off. 

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• Sports
• Soccer
• CAN 2021
• Cameroon

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