By James Robert Kayindi
The governing body of African football (CAF) has insisted that there have not been any changes made by the body as far as the schedule for its competitions is concerned. Confederation of African Football has sent its message loud and clear to all the concerned parties that no changes have been made to the initially announced schedule of the 2015 Africa Nations Cup qualifiers.
In a statement released by the body on its official website CAFOnline.com, it emphasizes that the fixtures for CAF U-17 and U-20 Championships qualifiers plus the inter-club competitions fixtures in the Orange CAF Champions League will still stand as earlier stated by the body. The body has also warned that no favours will be made for any well-wisher that wants to host the matches from elsewhere from their home grounds.
CAF however maintains that it takes nations that have been strongly hit by the Ebola epidemic as the only countries that have been asked to relocate their home games to neutral ground. “Countries like Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia remain the only countries required to relocate their fixtures to neutral grounds as a result of the situation of the Ebola virus as stated in our circular to member countries on 12th August, 2014,” a statement on the body’s website partly reads.
CAF also continues to mention that this arrangement will also be reviewed in mid-September to see if these countries will be able in position to host their home games in case the situation stabilizes or if the risk of spreading the killer disease reduces.
Ivory Coast is one of the countries that have made it clear that they will not be allowing anyone from the member states that have been hit by Ebola to enter in their country especially in the name of football. Ivory Coast already has restrictions on people from the affected countries and the country’s football federation has mentioned that they cannot host Sierra Leone at home.
Uganda plays Ghana away on Match Day one in Kumasi on September 6th and hosts Guinea four days later at Mandela National stadium, Namboole.
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