By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
With doubts over the postponement of next year’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tagged Cameroon 2021 which was originally billed for this year, the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) may have rescheduled the 2023 AFCON. It will now hold in 2024, Prompt News can reveal.
According to a credible report in Pan-African sports news outlet Kick442.com, the decision to postpone the 2023 AFCON by one year was taken by CAF bigwigs who are currently in Cameroon to brainstorm on the upcoming competition expected to kick off in Cameroon on January 9.
It was also gathered that the main reason to postpone the competition earlier billed to hold in Ivory Coast from June to July, 2023 was because of the congested international football calendar in 2022 and 2023 just as African countries will still be involved in the final rounds of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers.
A closer look at the 2022 and 2023 international calendar showed that no fewer than 10 African countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco and five others will in March, three weeks after Cameroon 2021 AFCON, be involved in the two-leg knockout matches to produce five countries that will represent Africa at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Also, three months after the final round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the preliminary round of the 2023 AFCON will start across Africa while the five African countries to the 2022 FIFA World Cup will between September and October be enmeshed in their preparations for the global football fiesta in Qatar.
In November and December the whole world attention will turn to Qatar where five African countries will take part in the FIFA World Cup final.
If the above 2022 international calendar is not congested enough, the 2023 calendar also presents a tight schedule for African countries as March 2023 will see African nations involved in the 1st and 2nd stages of group matches of 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast.
The 3rd and 4th round of group matches will hold in June 2023 while the final round of two matches will be played in September 2023, a situation which makes it imperative that Ivory Coast can only host the 2023 AFCON in January to February 2024.
This is even as there are talks of pushing the competition to June and July but that may not materialize because that period of the year in the West African sub-region is the pick period of the rainy season.
