Date for 2021 Africa Cup of Nations has been changed due to heavy rains

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has revealed that the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations will now take place from January 9 to February 6, 2021, to avoid the torrential rainfall in Cameroon during the summer.

June-July which was the original schedule.The tournament was originally scheduled to take place in the off-season in Europe but a request from the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and other stakeholders citing the weather conditions forced the change.

Torrential rainfall in June/July in Cameroon means that the tournament would have been severely disrupted as the rains could force matches to be cancelled or postponed.

To avoid this potential embarrassment, CAF held a meeting with the LOC to examine the problems of the weather which led to the decision of changing the timing.

“Indeed, faced with the unfavorable climatic conditions during the period initially fixed, Cocan (LOC) wanted to review it,” a statement from CAF on Wednesday said.

“After having heard the various arguments, in particular those of the meteorological officials of Cameroon, and the representatives of coaches and players, the AFCON Organising Committee, which received the mandate from the CAF Executive Committee to decide, acceded favorably to this request.”

“A detailed report will be presented to the members of the Executive Committee at the next meeting scheduled for February 6, 2020.”