Contrary to the original plan, there will be no Africa Cup in 2023 after all. The new date will not meet with universal approval
In 2017, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that the Africa Cup would no longer be held in January and February of the year, but in the summer instead – but this has only worked out once since then, in 2019.
2021, on the other hand, the tournament was postdated from summer to the beginning of the year for climatic reasons before the Corona pandemic made it necessary to postpone it by a year. The tournament was ultimately played in Cameroon at the beginning of 2022.
Once again there are concerns about climatic conditions
And the 2023 Africa Cup will also not be held until the following year. CAF President Patrice Motsepe announced on Sunday that it will not be played in Côte d’Ivoire in the summer of 2023, but in January and February 2024.
Again, the weather is the deciding factor. The original date in July would have fallen exactly in the rainy season in the host country. “We don’t want to take the risk of holding a tournament in a deluge. That would not be good for African football and its image,” Motsepe said.
But CAF is now risking discussions about player substitutions once again. At the start of the year, the nominated players will be missing from their clubs in leagues that are not interrupted for the tournament. Liverpool FC was particularly affected by this recently with Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Sadio Mané (Senegal) and Naby Keita (Guinea).
With Mané, a top player in African football now plays for FC Bayern. The attacking player shot his home country to the Africa Cup title for the first time this year.