The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed the first round of the 2022 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualifiers because the coronavirus pandemic and infrastructure challenges in the continent.
In a statement on Wednesday, CAF said the 22 matches scheduled to run between 7 -15 June have been postponed to 18-26 October 2021.
The second round of the qualifiers will take place in the FIFA window of 14-23 February 2022,where 11 winners will join Morocco at next year’s finals.
CAF also explained that many African governments have imposed strong travel restrictions, which require 14 days of quarantine, on those arriving from Europe.
The African football governing body, two weeks ago, banned 20 of its 54 member countries from using their stadiums to host international games because they don’t meet “minimum requirements” in a move that threw 2022 AWCON qualifiers in a disarray.
The 2022 tournament will be the first to feature 12 nations after the cancellation of 2020 edition due to coronavirus pandemic.
However, the 2020 AWCON postponement came as little surprise given the tournament had no host, while not one qualifier had been played.
Nigeria’s Super Falcons are the Awcon defending champions having won the 2018 edition that was held in Ghana.South Africa’s Banyana Banyana won silver while Cameroon’s Indomitable Lioness bagged bronze.
Qualifiers for the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations:
First round:
• Uganda v Ethiopia
• Kenya v South Sudan
• Eritrea v Burundi
• Djibouti v Rwanda
• Malawi v Zambia
• Tanzania v Namibia
• Zimbabwe v Eswatini
• Angola v Botswana
• Mozambique v South Africa
• Algeria v Sudan
• Egypt v Tunisia
• Equatorial Guinea v DR Congo
• Sao Tome and Principe v Togo
• Congo v Gabon
• Central African Republic v Cameroon
• Sierra Leone v Gambia
• Liberia v Senegal
• Mali v Guinea
• Guinea Bissau v Mauritania
• Burkina Faso v Benin
• Nigeria v Ghana
• Niger v Ivory Coast
