CAF president dismisses AFCON postponement

The Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe has put rumours over the Africa Cup of Nations being postponed ‘to bed’ with a recent statement.

Reports emerged last week that the upcoming tournament was under threat of being postponed due to global increasing Corona Virus cases.

The rearranged tournament is due to start in Cameroon in less than three weeks, and Motsepe insists it will be going ahead.

“I will be in Cameroon for the Africa Cup of Nations on January 7th,” he said in an interview with a Cameroon news channel on Monday.

CAF have already responded to claims the tournament was to be postponed, describing it as ‘fake news’.

According to Press Association journalist Rob Harris, meetings were due to take place on Monday between CAF and the Cameroon government to discuss the fate of AFCON.

Europe’s top clubs have already reportedly made their stance clear to FIFA, according to France 24.

The European Club Association told the governing body: “With regards to applicable protocols, as far as we are aware, CAF (the Confederation of African football) has not yet made available a suitable medical and operational protocol for the AFCON tournament, in the absence of which clubs will not be able to release players for the tournament.”

Should the tournament go ahead in the new year, Liverpool will be without Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita, who are set to miss Premier League matches against Brentford and Crystal Palace.

Jurgen Klopp has previously voiced his concerns over the tournament, but says Liverpool ‘will have to deal with it’ in their absence.

“The three boys helped us so much in the last few years and we knew that they were from Africa [when signing]. They have been so important in all these situations but now they are probably not here, so that’s the situation,” he said last week.

“You can’t always have the perfect solution. In this case, it’s absolutely far away from being perfect without these players. But we knew it, and now we have to deal with it.”