How does Africa fit in?
A winter World Cup in November- December 2022 will adversely affect the African Cup
of Nations schedule which is set for January to February 2023 in Guinea/Cote D’Ivoire.
First, it is near impossible that Europe’s biggest clubs will agree to allow some of their
best players leave first for a month-long global football party and then only two weeks
later allow them leave for a regional one. Even though the release of players from
international competitions is governed by FIFA, it is imagined that having already
severely inconvenienced the clubs by holding the World Cup right in the middle of their
regular seasons, the body will have little or no political clout to coerce the same clubs
to release players for another month. The resulting dilemma leaves only one option:
the rescheduling of the 2023 African Cup of Nations. Interestingly, it appears that this
outcome has already been ratified by the powers that be. FIFA’s Secretary General
Jerome Valcke confirmed that the Confederation of African Football has already
provisionally agreed to a shift of the 2023 AFCON.
“The African confederation has automatically and nicely agreed it will not organize the
Nations Cup in January 2023. It will have to postpone the Africa Cup of Nations to
June,” he said. Similarly, Spokesman of CAF, Junior Binyam is also quoted by the BBC
as saying CAF is “100% behind the the proposals of the task force and will adjust its
calendar accordingly.”
While CAF’s selflessness is admirable in some quarters, the folly of it is clear to
others. The African Nations Cup has been held predominantly in the January-February
window to allow for maximally favorable weather conditions and as such CAF’s rather
feeble concession to FIFA clearly has the potential to hurt its own premium asset, the
AFCON. The potential danger which a June AFCON presents is underlined by the fact
that the monsoon season in Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire, hosts of the 2023 tournament,
also kicks off in June.
Also, it is unlikely that CAF has already established a broadcast rights agreement for
the 2023 so the body will not be encumbered by tweaking those details but besides the
hazards presented by mother nature, CAF may be unwittingly tying itself into a knot.
Earlier this year, CAF announced sanctions of around $10 million on Morocco for
reneging on a hosting agreement for the 2015 AFCON. In the weeks before the event
and before new emergency hosts were announced, CAF insisted, repeatedly, after
Morocco’s request for the tournament to be changed from the origin al JanuaryFebruary dates that it will not entertain any request for date changes as the JanuaryFebruary period is sacrosanct.
However, with the current disposition of CAF and their lack of resistance to the possible
rescheduling of the 2023 AFCON, Morocco’s appeal of the sanctions (to be heard by
the Court of Arbitration of Sports will gain an interesting twist.
In all, the 2022 World Cup will leave its mark and most likely, as the world prepares for
a first winter World Cup, Africa will be preparing for its first summer AFCON in living
memory.- either way, history will be made and Africa will be placed firmly at the centre
of it all.
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