The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has approved the resumption of the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the group stage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers in November.
The approval was made by CAF Emergency Committee on Wednesday, joining other football competitions that has since resumed sporting activities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Recall the African football governing body suspended the AFCON qualifiers indefinitely in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The CAF Emergency Committee has approved the resumption date for qualifiers of the Total Africa Cup of Nations Cameroon 2021 and the group stage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” CAF announced in the statement via its official Twitter handle.
“A busy schedule awaits the participating teams with double-headers from November 2020 through to November 2021 in the battle for spots to the final tournament of the two competitions.
“The schedules for the two competitions have had to be revised in light of the COVID-19 outbreak which halted many sporting activities across the continent and beyond for some time.
“For Cameroon 2021, the qualifiers resume on 9-17 November 2020 with the Day 3 & 4 matches whilst the penultimate and ultimate matches take place on 22-30 March 2021.”
The final tournament slated for January 2022 will take place in Cameroon.
With the resumption of the competition, Nigeria would face Sierra Leone to secure a spot in the final AFCON tournament, while the Super Eagles’ first FIFA World Cup qualification game for Qatar 2022 in Group C against Lone Star of Liberia will be coming up in May 2021.
“The 40 teams in contention for the five slots for Qatar 2022 will commence the journey between 31 May and 15 June 2021 with the Day 1 & 2 matches,” CAF added.
“From 30 August till 7 September, the Day 3 & 4 matches are expected to take place with Day 5 & 6 matches fixed for 4-12 October 2021.
“The Playoff matches have been scheduled for 8-16 November 2021.”
