By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – Africa’s elite players could be forced to play two major tournaments in the space of a month if FIFA rubber-stamps the recommendation to switch the Qatar 2022 World Cup to winter.
So far, most of the criticism about a November-December date, due to be formally approved by FIFA’s executive committee later this month, has come from Europe’s leagues and clubs.
But the hosts of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations have now said they cannot move their tournament from January to June to accommodate the re-scheduled 2022 World Cup.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said last month that the Confederation of African Football had agreed to shift its flagship championship. ”The African confederation has automatically, and I would say nicely, agreed that they will not organize in January ’23,” Valcke told reporters in Qatar as the FIFA 2022 Task Force proposed the first ever winter World Cup.
But host Guinea’s Sports Minister Domani Dore said there was no chance of pushing it into the middle of the year since it was monsoon season in the West African country.
Dore said CAF had as yet not made any contact with regard to any switch.
”There is no question of organizing the 2023 CAN (African Cup of Nations) in Guinea in June,” said Dore. ”It is the rainy season. It is raining heavily, and you cannot play. CAF cannot consider postponing this without talking to the Guinean authorities.”
Dore’s comments will be food for thought for FIFA who are unlikely to take the step of thinking again. But something will have to give to prevent African players being forced into back-to-back tournaments.
The danger is that Africa’s showpiece event will become embroiled in yet more controversy following Morocco’s withdrawal from the latest Nations Cup which was switched at the 11th hour to Equatorial Guinea.
“CAF needs to take care to seek the advice of Guinea that we as a state decide which dates the tournament will be played,” said Dore. “We understand the problem around the World Cup and a clash with the Nations Cup. But CAF needs to take care to ask our opinion. In June, we cannot accommodate a Nations Cup tournament. It’s not possible.”
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