CAF cancels all football activities
CAF has postponed all continental football activities that were scheduled for March and April, following the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus.
In a circular posted on their website on Friday, Confederation of African Football (CAF) said the postponement of football events came after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic.
Also postponed were the FIFA Women Under-20 World Cup qualifiers scheduled for 20 to 22 March and 27 to 29 March and the Women's Afcon 2020 qualifier.
CAF said it would announce the new programme in due time following an assessment of the situation. For Namibia, this means the senior women's and the U-20 football matches against Botswana will not take place as they fall within the suspension period.
Also affected are the Brave Warriors' back-to-back matches against Mali in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers scheduled between 25 and 31 March in Bamako and Windhoek.
The African Nations Championship (Chan) 2020, which the Brave Warriors qualified for, and is scheduled for Cameroon from 4 to 25 April, hangs in the balance as a delegation from the CAF Medical Committee is scheduled to visit Cameroon from 14 to 15 March 2020.
The purpose of this mission is to assess all the preventive measures taken by the local organising committee, with a decision expected to be taken after the inspection visit.
The Namibian women's u-20 and the Brave Warriors teams are already in camp preparing for the matches, with the latter playing a friendly match at the coast Saturday afternoon.
President Hage Geingob earlier on Saturday announced the suspension of large gatherings for 30 days following the revelation of two positive Covid-19 cases in the country.
Further, the other activity cancelled by CAF until further notice is the Match Commissioners Workshop scheduled for 19 and 20 March.
The postponement of these games by CAF come at a time when FIFA had recommended to all its member associations to postpone all football matches scheduled for March and April 2020 because of the virus outbreak.
Namibia Football Association president Ranga Haikali on Saturday confirmed that they had seen the statement and would comply with FIFA recommendations “for the good of the players and fans”.
“We will follow the guidelines and adhere to the directive. Namibia is no exception to the rest of the world. These are factors beyond our control,” said Haikali.
NAMPA
Also postponed were the FIFA Women Under-20 World Cup qualifiers scheduled for 20 to 22 March and 27 to 29 March and the Women's Afcon 2020 qualifier.
CAF said it would announce the new programme in due time following an assessment of the situation. For Namibia, this means the senior women's and the U-20 football matches against Botswana will not take place as they fall within the suspension period.
Also affected are the Brave Warriors' back-to-back matches against Mali in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers scheduled between 25 and 31 March in Bamako and Windhoek.
The African Nations Championship (Chan) 2020, which the Brave Warriors qualified for, and is scheduled for Cameroon from 4 to 25 April, hangs in the balance as a delegation from the CAF Medical Committee is scheduled to visit Cameroon from 14 to 15 March 2020.
The purpose of this mission is to assess all the preventive measures taken by the local organising committee, with a decision expected to be taken after the inspection visit.
The Namibian women's u-20 and the Brave Warriors teams are already in camp preparing for the matches, with the latter playing a friendly match at the coast Saturday afternoon.
President Hage Geingob earlier on Saturday announced the suspension of large gatherings for 30 days following the revelation of two positive Covid-19 cases in the country.
Further, the other activity cancelled by CAF until further notice is the Match Commissioners Workshop scheduled for 19 and 20 March.
The postponement of these games by CAF come at a time when FIFA had recommended to all its member associations to postpone all football matches scheduled for March and April 2020 because of the virus outbreak.
Namibia Football Association president Ranga Haikali on Saturday confirmed that they had seen the statement and would comply with FIFA recommendations “for the good of the players and fans”.
“We will follow the guidelines and adhere to the directive. Namibia is no exception to the rest of the world. These are factors beyond our control,” said Haikali.
NAMPA
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