Author: SULEIMAN JONGO
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Confederation of African Football (CAF) has revealed a fixture for the 2021 CHAN finals as Taifa Stars will lock horn Zambia in one of the kick off early matches.
The home-based tournament to be held in Yaoundé, Cameroon will see Stars playing Chipolopolo on January 19th , four days after the event’s official kickoff.
Before the Taifa Stars-Zambian duel, the hosts Cameroon who are placed in group A, will get the tournament underway with a showdown against one of Southern Africa’s hopefuls, Zimbabwe in the opener at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé.
Zimbabwe are in the same group as West African powerhouses Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Taifa Stars are pooled in Group D alongside the Brave Warriors of Namibia with Central Africans Chipolopolo of Zambia. They will be based in Limbe/Buea along with the fourth side in the group, Guinea.
The only other SADC country at CHAN 2021 will be the DRC, who are in Group B alongside Libya, Niger and Congo Brazzaville. They will be based at Japoma in Douala.
Group C consists of Morocco, Togo, Uganda and Rwanda.
The final will be played in Yaoundé on February 7 at 8pm.
Stars will later face Namibia on January 23rd before confronting Guinea Bissau on January 27 next year.
The opening fixture will see the hosts playing Zimbabwe on January 16 as another fixture of the day will see Mali locking horns against Burkina Faso. Libya will have a date with Niger on January 17th while Democratic Republic of Congo will meet their neighbours from Brazzaville.
The following day, January 18th will see matches between Morocco and Togo and Rwanda versus Uganda.
The day which Taifa Stars will play Zambia will also be the day when Guinea will be playing against Namibia.
The quarterfinals will be played for two days on January 30th and 31st with the four matches on card while the semifinals will kick off on February 3rd as the third play-off will take place on January 6th.
Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information officer, Clifford Ndimbo said the event will be for the home based players only.
CAF has initiated the tournament exclusively for players plying their trade in their domestic respective leagues with a view to promote them to the international football.
Taifa Stars, under captaincy of John Bocco, will therefore play without international players, among others, skipper Mbwana Samatta, Thomas Ulimwengu and Simon Msuva who ply skills in abroad.
“We are ready for the tournament and arrangements (including programmes) for the team will be announced later,” said Ndimbo.
The tournament was originally penciled to run from April 4th to April 25th this year, but authorities had to freeze the 16-team fiesta owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
