Coronavirus forces postponement of CAF qualifiers

The rapid spread of the Coronavirus across the world has forced the hand of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who took a commendable decision to postpone the upcoming African Nations Cup qualifying matches scheduled for March 25-31.

In a statement released by the CAF Acting Secretary General Abdel Bah, the organization stresses that the health and safety of their stakeholders from players, officials, sponsors, broadcasters and employees remain their priority.

“We have been closely monitoring the situation together with our medical committee, the impact of the current Coronavirus crisis which has been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic,” reads the statement.

“Although in Africa only a few cases have been reported however, the situation could evolve. Several African governments have taken strong restrictions on travel, lockdowns as well as quarantine for people coming from countries affected by the virus.

“In addition, several clubs now refuse to release their players for the next international window. For the above reasons and after carefully studying the current situation, CAF has decided to postpone the Total Africa Cup of Nations 2021 qualifiers scheduled for March 25-3.”

Meanwhile, the organization has also opened bids for both Marketing and Television broadcast tenders for their various competitions including:
*Women AFCON 2020
*Beach Soccer AFCON 2020
*Inter-Club competitions 2020/2021
*U-17 AFCON
*U-20 AFCON
*African Cup of Nations 2021
*CAF Supercup 2020
*AFCON qualifiers 2021

CAF broke their lengthy contract with French-based company Lagardere which held their broadcast rights that were supposed to end in 2028 and they are inviting interested parties to tender for their properties listed above.