Senegal coach Aliou Cisse wants the September Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers postponed so that the continent’s five World Cup teams can play friendly matches.
Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia have qualified for the November 21-December 18 Qatar tournament, and the African teams have only a September 19-27 window to prepare, with the World Cup starting one week later.
Morocco will be able to play warm-up games in September thanks to Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from Group K, but the other four teams will face two African qualifiers each.
Cameroon will face Namibia, Ghana will face Angola, Senegal will face Mozambique, and Tunisia will face Libya at home and away.
“The best thing (to) help the five (African) selections that have qualified (for the World Cup) is to stop the (qualifiers) in September,” said the former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder-cum-defender.
“(This would) give the opportunity to the countries qualified (for the World Cup) to do their preparations. I think we can find a solution to postpone the (qualifiers) scheduled for September.”
The challenge for CAF will be to find new dates if the 44 September fixtures are postponed, as there is only one other window before the June-July 2023 finals in the Ivory Coast, next March.
CAF intends to hold Cup of Nations qualifying matchdays 5 and 6 between March 20 and 28, with the finals scheduled for June and July 2023.
The Cairo-based body may consider cancelling only the eight September World Cup qualifier matches and requiring them to play catch-up during the World Cup window once eliminated.
African pundits are extremely pessimistic about the five, with only Senegal, who will face the Netherlands, Qatar, and Ecuador in Group A, having a realistic chance of progressing to the second round.
Tunisia are in Group D with defending champions France, Denmark and Australia or Peru and Morocco in Group F beside Belgium, Canada and Croatia.
Cameroon face Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland in Group G and Ghana meet Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea in Group H.
