CAF sets new dates for CHAN

The 2020 African Nations Championship (Chan) will take place in January 2021, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has confirmed.

The event was Initially scheduled for between April 4 and 25 this year, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A new date will see the championship take place in one of the months with the shortest daylight in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Just like November and December, January is a month with the shortest days in Yaoundé, with an average of 11.9 hours of sunlight; meaning that the event could be played mostly at night to avoid the scorching heat of January/February.

Africa’s second biggest football extravaganza will run from January 16 to February 7, 2021.

To protect teams from the hot weather, Caf also announced the fourth substitution rule in the event of extra time at the knockout stages of the competitions will apply.

Meanwhile, the final tournament of the African Nations Championship, Algeria 2022, has been rescheduled to January 2023. The exact dates are to be discussed with the hosting FA.

The other decisions that were rectified by the Caf’s executive committee meeting held on September 10, include the rescheduling of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations which is set to be held in Morocco in 2021.

“Following a request by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, the final tournament has been rescheduled for 13 – 31 March 2020.

An amendment to the MRI test regulations was also approved that will see any team with at least one ineligible player disqualified.

At the same time, the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers that were temporarily suspended will now resume in the next couple of weeks.

“The Committee ratified the decisions of the CAF Emergency Committee on the resumption of the qualifiers for the Total Africa Cup of Nations Cameroon 2021 qualifiers and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”