Goodbye in summer: the African Cup of Nations (CAN) football in Cameroon in 2021 will be played in winter, a return to the situation that prevailed before the last edition of the competition in Egypt in 2019. CAN "Will be played in Cameroon from January 9 to February 6", first announced Wednesday, January 15, the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot) on its Facebook page, stating: “Date modified for meteorological reasons at the request of Cameroon. " The information was confirmed soon after by the African Football Confederation (CAF) after a meeting in Yaoundé.
Historically, the normal period of competition was in January and February, with weather conditions more favorable than in summer, too hot. The president of CAF, the Madagascan Ahmad Ahmad, had changed the deal to everyone's surprise, barely elected in 2017 to succeed Cameroonian Issa Hayatou. He then announced that the flagship competition for African football would take place, as of the 2019 edition in Egypt, in summer and no longer in winter. Wednesday’s announcement is therefore a turnaround.
The CAN’s winter outfit before 2017 irritated European clubs, which were very reluctant to let their African players go in high season, particularly in France and England, where many of them play.
Clear space for the future Club World
This return to a CAN in winter also comes when the International Football Federation (FIFA) has expressed its desire to make way for the future Club World in summer. The first edition of this competition, which will now take place every four years and no longer every year, is to be played in June 2021 in China, with twenty-four teams on the program, according to a reform wanted by FIFA president Gianni Infantino .
CAF has been placed under the supervision "Of a mission" of FIFA and its leaders Gianni Infantino and Fatma Samoura since 1st August 2019, following suspicions of corruption that splash Ahmad Ahmad. The decision to advance the dates of the CAN to the beginning of the year 2021 should not fail to raise the question of the full sovereignty of CAF.
There is nothing to indicate, however, that this return to winter is final and prevalent for editions subsequent to that of Cameroon, the final communiqué of the meeting of the Organizing Committee of CAN (Cocan) held in a hotel in Yaoundé not saying so clearly.
"The main item on the agenda was the review of the competition period at the request of the Cameroonian side. Indeed, faced with the unfavorable climatic conditions during the period initially fixed, Cocan wished to re-examine it ”, we read in this text. "Consequently, for the 2021 edition, the African Cup of Nations will take place in Cameroon, from January 9 to February 6, 2021", concludes Cocan. The following editions, in 2023 and 2025, should normally be held in Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea respectively.
