The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Emergency Committee has postponed the 2022 FIFA World Cup African Qualifier matches following the inability of some countries to host their home matches in their own countries.
In a statement released on Thursday, the committee said that the matches that were to be played in June this year will now take place in the existing windows of September, October, and November 2021 and in March 2022.
“The CAF Emergency Committee in consultation with FIFA decided to postpone the CAF qualifiers for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022…after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” part of the committee’s statement reads.
CAF has also said that it is reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of Covid related protocols, including specifically focusing on pre-match testing, which it said has been the source of some challenges faced in the previous windows.
Harambee Stars were set to hit camp on May 27 in preparation for their first assignment against Uganda on the weekend of June 5 or 6 before travelling to Kigali to play Rwanda a week later.
Senegal,Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, CAR, Burundi, Eritrea, Chad, Gambia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone,Somalia and Namibia were some of the countries that CAF ruled unfit for hosting international matches.