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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
FIFA have moved the 2021 AFCON finals to January 2022 which means Warriors coach, Zdravko Logarusic, will be in the final days of his current deal should he take his team to the finals in Cameroon.
As we reported earlier this year, the Croatian gaffer, who signed a two-year deal with ZIFA to take charge of the Warriors, will not be in charge of any competitive national team game in the first year of his deal.
The September and November international transfer windows for CAF, this year, have been scrapped.
It’s very likely Loga’s first competitive match, in charge of the Warriors, is likely to come in June next year where the team could play as many as four matches during that window.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected football competition at all levels across the world,’’ FIFA secretary-general, Fatma Samoura, said yesterday in a notice to member associations.
“From the onset, FIFA has highlighted health as being the absolute priority and has supported the suspension of domestic and international competition wherever required.
“As a result, and in order to address the consequences of this exceptional situation, FIFA established the Covid-19 FIFA-Confederations Working Group, which immediately set about working on the updates to the men’s and women’s international match calendars necessitated by this disruption.
“Alongside this, FIFA also regularly consulted with professional football stakeholders, taking into account their views and feedback.
“The result of this process has seen the FIFA Council, and the Bureau of the Council, take several decisions over the past months regarding changes to the men’s and women’s international match calendars, the most recent of which were approved by the bureau of the council on 14 August 2020.
“These decisions reflect the fact that the sanitary situation differs between regions, and a one-size-fits-all calendar is, therefore, not feasible given the differences between each Confederation during this unique period.’’
Loga’s first match was scheduled to be against African champions, Algeria’s Desert Foxes, in back-to-back AFCON qualifiers in March this year.
However, those matches were postponed as authorities in African countries closed their borders, in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, to try and protect their countries.
There were expectations the matches would be played in June and July but, once again, it was impossible for the fixtures to be arranged during those dates.
Then, others hinted that the games could be played either in September or November but that will not be possible after FIFA yesterday came up with a roadmap for the return of the international matches.
The new arrangement means Loga will become the first Warriors coach to spend a year, after his engagement, without taking charge of the team, in a competitive game.
FIFA said CAF will announce the dates of the Nations Cup finals to be held in January 2022.
“CAF, inclusion of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in January 2022 (exact dates to be confirmed) with an exemption to Annexe 1, Art. 1 Par. 6 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of players to allow players to participate in both the AFCON and the FIFA World Cup in 2022,’’ Samoura said in her notice.
“For the AFC (Asian Football Confederation), CAF, Concacaf, CONMEBOL and the OFC, the international window of September 2020 is postponed to January 2022 (24 January – 1 February 2022).
“This means that there is no mandatory release of players for member associations from these Confederations in the context of Annexe 1 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players for the international window of September 2020
“For UEFA, the international window of September 2020 is maintained. FIFA is in close contact with UEFA, as the competition organisers, for the games planned in September 2020.
“Based on the above, as well as the current sanitary situation, it was also agreed that requests from non-European Member Associations to play friendlies in Europe with European-based players, during the international window of September 2020, can unfortunately not be accepted.
“For UEFA, the international windows of October and November 2020 are exceptionally extended by one additional day, allowing for three games to be played instead of two games (as an exception to Art. 1 Par. 4 of Annexe 1 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.
“The international window of June 2021 is extended by seven additional days for the AFC, CAF, Concacaf and the OFC, allowing four games to be played in this window.
“International window of January 2022, this window, which is a result of the postponement of the international window of September 2020, is applicable for the AFC, CAF, Concacaf, CONMEBOL and the OFC but not UEFA. The dates are the following: 24 January — 1 February 2022.’’
CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad, provided a hint there would be no immediate return to international football when he told the organisation’s latest newsletter the time was not yet right for inter-continental matches.
“I have been hearing here, and there, that football will resume its normal course at the start of classic school year, that is to say from next September, and with it the train of elements which usually condition it,’’ he said.
“(That is) utra-busy stadiums, as spectators, public training sessions, meetings with fans and congratulations and autograph sessions, exactly as it existed before the arrival of the Covid-19 tsunami.
“Let me brush aside all these fantasies with the back of my hand and oppose them with a glaring truth — the coronavirus is still with us and it continues to wreak havoc.
“And, even if the African continent has not experienced the damage of a devastating contagion, it is, none the less, seriously affected.’’ Ahmad said there must be a balance of impatience and reality.
Online Reporter