CHAN 2020: CAF postpones tournament for locally based players over Coronavirus

The continent’s football governing body, CAF, has postponed the African Nations Championship (CHAN), a tournament for only locally-based players that was scheduled to kick off in Cameroon next month over Coronavirus.

CAF on Tuesday issued a statement informing all member countries of the postponement of the tournament.

“Following the growing concern of the COVID-19 virus and the report of the recently concluded Medical inspection visit to the host country of the Total CHAN, Cameroon 2020, CAF Emergency Committee decided today to postpone the competition until further notice…..”

“Even though the situation is considered as being under control in Cameroon and as per the advice from the WHO, the crisis is not yet stabilized yet in Africa and it’s very difficult to predict its evolution in the next few days.”

The development came on the backdrop of the tournament’s organizing committee that had also advised that it is postponed.

On Tuesday, an extraordinary session of the CHAN organizing committee sat in Cameroon and agreed to postpone the tournament over the deadly pandemic citing among others the confinement of the population in many countries, restrictions imposed on grouping of teams and officials and closure of borders.

The committee said the pandemic will make it difficult for delegations to travel.

It also mentioned the instability of the epidemiological situation in the vast majority of countries qualified for the CHAN 2020.

The new dates of the competition will be decided according to the evolution of the situation.

Uganda is one of the nations that qualified for the CHAN 2020 finals and preparations for the tournament had already begun.

The development comes barely a week after CAF postponed the African Nations Cup 2021 qualifiers over COVID-19.

A number of leagues and sports tournaments in the world have also suffered the same fate in the wake of the deadly Coronavirus that has had a big  toll on the affairs of the world.