The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations is likely to be moved back to January and February and the reason might again be associated with the climatic conditions on the continent, according to CAF president Ahmad Ahmad.
“When we took the decision to move the Africa Cup of Nations to June, which we did for the last tournament in Egypt, we have always said that we need to have some flexibility over the dates,” Ahmad told insideworldfootball during the just concluded FIFA World Club Cup in Doha.
“This is because of the different climatic conditions in the continent. I don’t know why the media has forgotten that this was discussed in detail, at the 2017 CAF symposium that we had in Morocco.”
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“In my view, it is not possible, because of the climatic conditions in Cameroon, to stage the Africa Cup of Nations in June/July. This is clear, so we must make a decision on the date,” Ahmad said.
Ahmad also revealed that a decision will be taken on the matter during CAF’s next executive committee meeting. It’s also alleged that one of the reasons why the tournament will be moved in the emergency of the 2021 FIFA World Club Cup which will be a 24 club competition in China.
The FIFA competition is scheduled to start on June 17 and end on July 4, five days before the scheduled start of the AFCON.
The closeness between the two competitions ensures that several national teams on the continent will not have their key players for the traditional two-week camping period, before the kick-off of Africa’s most important football event.
It should be noted that the 2020 African Nations Championship was moved from January / February to April and it will run from 5th to 25th.
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