The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has made a decision. In a press release dated March 31, 2021 and published on Thursday, its announced the programming of the next African Cup of Nations football (AfCON 2021), scheduled in Cameroon, from January 9 to February 6, 2022.
The date of January 15 to February 28, 2022 was initially chosen for the organization of this AfCON flagship competition.
“The Executive Committee unanimously approved the proposed dates for the organization of the teams’ drawing (June 25, 2021) and the final tournament of the AfCON Total Cameroon 2021 (January 9 to February 6, 2022),” the Committee said in its document.
In addition, the drawing to determine the composition of the six groups will take place on June 25th. Besides, the AfCON has decided that the competition would continue to be called AfCON 2021, despite its postponement to 2022, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thus, the last days of AfCON 2021 qualifiers were played at the end of March 2021. With the exception of Sierra-Leone vs. Benin, postponed for the next international break in June, all the qualifying matches have been played.
These two teams will compete for the last qualifying ticket for AfCON 2021, as the match scheduled for last Tuesday in Freetown could not be organized. Sierra Leonean authorities have concluded that senior Beninese squad players contracted Covid-19, a claim denied by Benin. The AfCON has promised to open an investigation while rescheduling this game.
List of 23 qualified countries: Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Ghana, Sudan, Gambia, Gabon, Morocco, Mauritania, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Egypt, Comoros, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea , Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone or Benin.
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