At 16:00 Beijing time on December 15, 2021, according to the News of the French authoritative media RMC SPORT, the African Cup of Nations, which was scheduled to be held in January next year, will be cancelled directly.
RMC SPORT pointed out in the article: "The current epidemic in Africa is more serious than expected, and for security reasons, the African Football Association is likely to cancel the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in the near future." ”
The original text of RMC SPORT is as follows:
"Will the Africa Cup of Nations be the next major continental match where major decisions must be made in the face of the pandemic? Based on our information, the African Football Federation (CAF) may announce the cancellation of the 2022 match in Cameroon. Due to the repeated outbreaks of the epidemic in recent days, the discussion of canceling the event has been put on the agenda. In any case, this deliberation is ongoing. ”
Several national team coaches have responded to this possibility, but at the moment they have not announced a formal decision. In addition to the threat of the pandemic, the CAF has also faced complaints from some Premier League clubs that they hope players from Africa will be able to stay in the UK in the coming weeks. African players who will participate in the Africa Cup of Nations will have to go into quarantine upon their return to The UK, so this will allow the club to lose their players for a longer period of time. At the same time, the British mainland is also under a lot of light pressure. ”
It is understood that as the RMC SPORT reporter said in the article, the epidemic situation in Africa has now exceeded the control of the African Football Association, whether it is the African Football Association or the Football Association of the teams participating in the African Cup of Nations, they are very worried that the African Cup of Nations will become another source of the epidemic.
Most importantly, in recent times, the African Football Association has been under pressure from a number of premier league teams due to conflicts between the African Cup of Nations schedule and the Premier League schedule.
In fact, when the African Cup of Nations has not yet been announced whether it will be cancelled, it has been criticized by many clubs in the Premier League, especially Liverpool, which has 3 African internationals, and Chelsea, who has the main goalkeeper of the Senegalese national team, has been communicating with the Egyptian Football Association, the Senegalese Football Association, and the Guinea Football Association, hoping that the African internationals in the team can go to the African Cup of Nations later.
Of course, this is not to say that these two giants are selfish, after all, in the late December to early January, the intensity of the Premier League will exceed that of all European leagues, especially the so-called Christmas Express period in the Premier League, which often gives the Famous Managers of the Premier League a headache.
Therefore, being able to get African internationals to report on the national team later will undoubtedly make Premier League champions teams such as Liverpool and Chelsea not immediately weaken their combat effectiveness.
It is worth mentioning that the African Cup itself also has many problems, especially the frequency of holding one session every two years, which makes many African stars suffer a lot of obstacles when transferring, after all, no matter who is the head coach of the giants, they do not want to lack major generals during the African Cup of Nations, and they need to bear twice in a very short period of time.
It is understood that the African Cup of Nations was originally scheduled to start in Cameroon on January 3 and will last until February 1.
If, as the RMC SPORT reporter said, the African Cup of Nations cannot be held as scheduled, then it is good news for Premier League champions like Liverpool and Chelsea, after all, the African internationals in these two teams are in very good shape, especially Liverpool's Egyptian international Salah and Senegal international Mane, as well as Chelsea's Senegal international Mendy, are the absolute core of the team and are in very good shape this season.