It should be announced tomorrow that the African Cup of Nations will be postponed until September, according to a report.
The news has been doing the rounds in the last few days that the tournament could be pushed back given doubts over the logistics of the competition amid rising Covid cases not only on the continent but also across Europe where players will have to travel from.
According to SportMediaset (via MilanNews), only an official announcement is missing but the Africa Cup of Nations will be postponed to September. Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, had proposed to play it in that month and has now decided that AFCON should not go ahead on January 9 in Cameroon.
The emergency meeting of the CAF (the African Confederation) in Doha produced this decision to avoid the overlap between the African Cup and the Club World Cup, scheduled for 3 to 12 February in the United Arab Emirates. The good news for Milan if this is true is that Kessie, Bennacer and Ballo-Toure will remain.
READ MORE: Florenzi on a mission for personal redemption and to repay the faith from Milan
Why does this fake news keep coming up? Why is the European media so against the AFCON???
Is it that far-fetched? The NHL just suspended its season for the time being. An entire league stopped playing. This is an international competition that has no real financial bearing on the world of football (as do all international competitions, except for the unfortunate countries saddled with hosting them).
come on man why would you post this bs when its clearly not correct, afcon will be postponed untill september when theres a world cup in late november. how is that supposed to work ? ? ? ? ?
Martin, I don’t see how this has anything to do with the WC. AFCON always occurs in the middle of the club season anyway. Players leave for the AFCON and come back. Same will happen in September. Then there is a full club break for the WC. So unless the AFCON is at the same time as the WC, there are no issues, because leagues are not impacted.
ofcourse there is an issue in having african national teams participating in two huge tournaments pretty much right on top of each other. I’ll believe it when i see it
Martin, if they’re not playing at AFCON they’re playing for their clubs. So in terms of workload I’m not sure much changes. As a matter of fact, I’d say it will be a break for most of them, as the national teams will carry 23 players of which only 11 will start games plus 5 subs. So the rest will be on the bench instead of on the pitch for their clubs.
The true losers of this schedule are clubs. As some will lose players twice in 3 months and also have to endure a 6 week break in the middle of their season. What happens to players not participating in the WC? January will be like August for some of them. Half the players at club will have no form and the other half will be exhausted!
Its not that you havent any valid points but frankly holding a big tournament nearly right before a bigger one will potentially cause fatigue and injuries considering they will also have to return to their clubs right away so in my view it will most likely be an disadvantage for those african teams. Anyways lets see what happens…
The Euro, Copa America and Olympic was played just within a few weeks gaps. Player like Pedri played in both tournament. It’s possible, FIFA could careless because they need money.
with all due respect to the olympic football tournament its hardly at the same level as euros or afcon or copa america