Even though The Gambia is not participating in the World Cup qualifiers, yesterday’s announcement by CAF that the world cup qualifiers slated to start in June has been postponed could mean the Scorpions would be opportuned to play more preparatory matches with African sides in the June Fifa window.
With Comoros and Kosovo already confirmed as opponents in June, the GFF said there are solid proposals for the Scorpions to also face Mauritania and Tunisia and the postponement of the world cup qualifies could make those kind of countries more easily available for friendlies in June.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that the second round of the Fifa 2022 World Cup qualifiers will begin in September instead of June as previously scheduled.
This development was confirmed by the CAF Emergency Committee in a dispatch to all Member Associations citing Covid19 fears. The African football governing body said it took the decision in consultation with FIFA “after taking into consideration current challenges caused by the Covid19 pandemic.”
The qualifiers will now take place during the Fifa windows of September, October and November this year finishing in March 2022. The new dates according to CAF would allow participating countries adequate timeframe to optimally prepare ahead of the conditions for the start of the qualifying series.
CAF added that it is reassessing its processes to enhance the implementation of the Covid19 related protocols focusing on pre-match testing which in the past games has been a major challenge. However there are claims that Caf was forced to take this decision after a lot of big footballing countries embarrassingly are listed to have poor playing grounds not approved by its technical team to host standard international matches.
Africa has five slots at the global event that brings together 32 countries every four years at the world’s prestigious event, which this time will be hosted by Qatar next year.
