CAF release new AFCON Qualifier dates due to FIFA World Cup

Cameroon celebrates being crowned Champions during the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations Finals, Afcon Final match between Egypt and Cameroon at the Libreville in Gabon on 05 February 2017 ©Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Thursday Nov 23, 2017. 16:30

News coming from the Confederation of African Football is that new dates for the 2019 CAF African Cup of Nations qualifiers have been released.

The new dates are related to the second round of 2019 AFCON qualifiers after CAF opted to postpone all the round’s fixtures last Thursday.

After losing their first qualifier against Tunisia, Egypt were set to face Niger in Alexandria in March 2018 in the second round of the qualifiers, but the date has been rescheduled by CAF.

Following the committee meeting last Thursday in Rabat in Morocco, CAF took the decision of postponing the second round matches to give teams that have qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup a chance to prepare for the tournament.

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The new dates for the second round have been moved from March to 3-11 September 2018, with the third and fourth rounds taking place on October 8-16 2018.

Furthermore, the fifth round has been moved one month forward to take place between 12-20 November 2018 instead of October, while the final round will take place between 18-26 March 2019.

On the other hand, CAF has also decided to move the 2019 African Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.

It will now be staged between June and July instead of January and February for the first time as teams have also been increased from 16 to 24.