The Confederation of African Football said on Sunday that the upcoming round of African Cup of Nations qualifying matches in September has been postponed to provide the continent’s five World Cup-bound teams the chance to play stronger warm-up games before the competition in Qatar.
Since the Ivory Coast’s upcoming Cup of Nations finals were moved from June of 2019 to January of 2024, there had been little discussion of the postponement.
Coach Aliou Cisse of Senegal was one of the more outspoken opponents of the schedule, arguing that it forced his nation to play two Cup of Nations qualifiers against Mozambique during the final window of opportunity in September if they wanted to play teams from other continents before the World Cup.
Senegal is anticipated to soon reveal alternate fixtures.
Besides Tunisia, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia will all have teams competing at the World Cup finals.
There are still four rounds left in the Cup of Nations qualifying matches, which began with two rounds of games in June.
According to CAF, matchday three and matchday four qualifying matches have been shifted to March 20–28 of the following year, the fifth round to June 12–20 of 2023, and matchday six to September 4–12 of 2023.
