Mali Confirm Friendlies With Ghana And Iran

The Mali Football Federation (FEMAFOOT) has announced the Les Aigles will play two friendly matches next month.

The national team has been inactive since November 2019 when they faced Guinea and Chad in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Mali were scheduled to face Namibia in back-to-back Nations qualifiers in March 2020, but the matches were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The two crucial qualifiers will are now set to be played in November after Confederation of Africa Football rescheduled the matches. And as part of preparations for the matches against Namibia, Mali will now face Ghana on October 9 in Turkey before facing Iran three days later in Ankara.

According to FEMAFOOT, both matches will be played behind closed doors in line with established health protocols due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The friendly against Ghana was supposed to be played on October 10 in Bamako but that game has been rescheduled based on FIFA’s regulation which prohibits teams from playing on two different continents within a short period of time.

Mali are second in their qualifying group for the continental tournament, which will now be played in 2022 in Cameroon, with four points from two matches.

Guinea, Namibia and Chad are the other teams in this group with the top two teams advancing to the tournament finals.