Caf confirms new dates for postponed 2022 World Cup qualifiers

The continent’s football governing body confirmed the schedules for the qualifying games which were postponed due to the impact of Covid-19

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has announced the new international calendar for the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying matches.

African countries were meant to commence their race to Qatar in June 2021, albeit, the continent’s football ruling body shifted it citing ‘current challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic’ as the reason.

Caf, in a statement released on Thursday, disclosed the World Cup qualification games will begin in September 2021.

“The Caf Emergency Committee, in consultation with Fifa, decided to postpone the Caf qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 that were due to be played in June 2021 after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams,” the statement read.

“The qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.

“Caf is reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of Covid-related protocols, including specifically focusing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows. Full details on the updated match schedule will be provided in due course.”

MORE TO FOLLOW