CAF postpones FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Africa, sets new dates

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the new international calendar for the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying matches.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, CAF disclosed that World Cup qualification games will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.

“The CAF Emergency Committee, in consultation with FIFA, decided to postpone the CAF qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™️ that were due to be played in June 2021 after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams,” a statement released by CAF on Thursday reads.

CAF says they as a federation are reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of COVID-related protocols, including specifically focusing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows.

Uganda is in Group E of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers with neighbours Kenya and Rwanda, and West African side Mali.