Izuchukwu Okosi
In this special Feature, Prime Business Africa’s Senior Correspondent IZUCHUKWU OKOSI runs the rule on the best solution to the hosting of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Cameroon as the Confederation of African Football are said to be mulling over the possibility of cancelling the African Fiesta.
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The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations is expected to kick off on January 9 2022 but there are palpable fears that the tournament will be cancelled or better still postponed.
The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus is on the prowl and the European Football Union and European football clubs are reluctant to release their players due to the huge risks of letting their players travel down to Africa.
A good example of a club (and manager) not in favour of the Afcon is Liverpool (and Jurgen Klopp) who are likely to be without key forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, as well as midfielder Naby Keita.
In fact defender Joel Matip could make a return to international football for Cameroon.
Talking about Cameroon, the country has been rather unlucky with the way things have turned out.
Flrst, the football federation, FECAFOOT, were informed abruptly about the increase of participating countries at the 2019 Afcon which they were supposed to host.
The tournament was supposed to have 16 teams but the Confederation of African Football took the decision to expand it to 24-team format and it was inconceivably hard for FECAFOOT to meet up with the financial commitments.
Then came the pandemic that affected the Afcon which eventually had to be hosted by Egypt in the summer of 2019 with the weather conditions in North Africa similar to that of Europe’s where most of the players on Nations Cup duty are based.
Now, with the Coronavirus still ravaging the world and the reluctance of clubs to release their players, it will be in the interest of African football to once again move the tournament forward from January to a later date.
The issue is that CAF are adamant that it will go on as scheduled but the European clubs could devise means to frustrate the national teams which would only water down the competitiveness of the tournament.
Having the Afcon pushed back to the summer of 2022 or sometime in 2023 will be a good idea which buys the Confederation of African Football a bit more time as medical experts work tirelessly to tackle the menace of the Omicron variant.
However cancelling the tournament indefinitely will be a bad publicity for African football.
As much as some English clubs differed with South American countries over the release of their players for World Cup qualifying duties in October 2021, they will never ask COMEBOL as a Confederation to cancel their flagship tournament, the Copa America.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
