The Confederation of African Football have confirmed that the AFCON that was due to take place next year has been moved to January 2022 now.
Club football has been delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the International tournaments are now being rescheduled to accommodate the remaining fixtures.
“After consultation with stakeholders and taking into consideration the current global situation, the tournament has been rescheduled for January 2022,” Caf confirmed in a statement. “The date for the final tournament and the remaining matches of the qualifiers will be communicated in due course.”
The decision will come as a huge boost for the clubs across Europe who would have lost key players for a few weeks next January. Now they will have a chance to hold on to their key players for the entirety of the next season.
The delay also allows clubs to prepare for the tournament in 2022 by signing the necessary players next summer.
This summer’s transfer dealings have been affected by the current health crisis.
Clubs can no longer afford to spend hundreds of millions because of the losses they have faced this summer.
For example, Liverpool manager Klopp himself admitted that the Reds won’t be able to spend a lot this window. If the AFCON had taken place in January 2021, they would have lost Salah, Mane, Keita and Matip for weeks without suitable replacements.
It would have weakened their squad a lot and it would have damaged their title hopes.
