Coronavirus Concerns Forces CAF To Postpone Nigeria Vs Sierra Leone AFCON Qualifiers

The Confederation of African Football has postponed the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers between Nigeria and Sierra Leone earlier scheduled to hold on March 27 and March 31.

The continent's football regulator decided to postpone all the AFCON qualifiers scheduled from March 25-31 as a precautionary measure due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Though only a few cases have been reported in Africa, CAF argued that several players who were supposed to play in the qualifiers ply their trades in countries severely affected by the virus and several clubs have refused to release their players to African Federations.

Several African governments have taken strong restrictions on travels : lock down, quarantine for people coming from countries affected by the virus.

"As CAF's top priority remains the heath and safety of our stakeholders (players, officials, sponsors, broadcasters, employees), we have been monitoring closely, together with our Medical Committee, the impact of the current coronavirus crisis," CAF said in a statement.

"For the above reasons and after studying carefully the current situation, CAF has decided to postpone the Total Africa Cup of Nations 2021 qualifiers scheduled from 25-31 March 2020.

"We will share with you a proposal of a new calendar that will be communicated on a second step, according to the evolution of the coronavirus situation."

The Super Eagles lead the way in Group L of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with six points after wins against Benin and Lesotho.

Igho Kingsley