Africa-Press – Botswana. Initially scheduled to be played from 23 June to 23 July 2023, in Côte d’Ivoire, the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) could be postponed again, as the edition that was scheduled for Cameroon, however disputed in Egypt.
With a year to go before the tournament, torrential rains, with flooding in the mix, have been recorded in the land of the Elephants and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is beginning to admit that scheduling the competition in the middle of the rainy season is not necessarily a decision intelligent.
With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar scheduled from 21 November to 18 December 2022, it is impossible to advance the CAN between January and February 2023, as players will not be able to play two major tournaments in the space of a few weeks. The only alternative is therefore to postpone the CAN to January/February 2024.
“We are considering it. It is one of the possibilities”,” admitted the secretary general of CAF, Veron Mosengo-Omba, interviewed by the French newspaper Le Monde. “We asked Côte d’Ivoire’s meteorologists to tell us the history of rainfall in the country in June and July, but also to share their projections with us.”
On the host country side, the new president of the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF), Idriss Diallo, is in the same vein. “CAF did not ask us. But whatever their decision, we will apply it. It is their competition. We are not opposed to (the change of dates)”, informed the leader to the French daily. The matter will be on the agenda of the 44th Ordinary General Assembly of CAF, scheduled for August 10, in Arusha, Tanzania.
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