December 14 – Insisting it has not made the decision to fall into line with Europe, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that its club tournaments will run between September or October and May from 2019.
Currently, the many fixtures including the CAF Champions League are played between February and November, awkward timing for clubs involved in August-to-May domestic African seasons. Which is why a CAF symposium in Morocco this year agreed to change the dates.
It has already been decided that the biennial African Cup of Nations will move from January and February to June and July from the 2019 tournament in Cameroon to prevent club-versus-country clashes among African players based in Europe.
But the latest alteration is not for the same reason.
“The change is not to fit with European clubs but to match the schedule of more than 75% of the leagues on the continent,” CAF director of communication Junior Binyam told the BBC.
“This will also allow us to have a player registration period for the CAF competitions that matches the period most countries follow already. It will also align things according to the new timeline of our flagship tournament, which is the African Cup of Nations.”
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