By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on Tuesday the postponement of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2024 to August 2025.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be hosted by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda from 1 to 28 February 2025.
CAF said in a statement that “good progress has been made in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with the construction and upgrading of stadiums, training fields, hotels, hospitals and other infrastructure and facilities for the hosting of a successful Chan tournament.”
However, the CAF Technical and Infrastructure experts some of whom have been based in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, have advised CAF that more time is required to ensure that the infrastructure and facilities, are at the levels, necessary for hosting a successful African Nations Championship (“Chan”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024.
President of CAF Dr Patrice Motsepe said: “I would like to express my deep gratitude to President William Ruto of Kenya, President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for their leadership, commitment and the good progress that has been made in building and upgrading the stadiums, training fields, hotels, hospitals and other infrastructure and facilities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for hosting a successful TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (“Chan”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024.
“I am impressed with the ongoing construction and renovations of the football infrastructure and facilities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. I am confident that the stadiums, training fields, hotels, hospitals and other infrastructure and facilities will be at the requisite CAF standards for hosting, in August 2025, a very successful TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (“Chan”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024.”
Despite the postponement, the group draw for CHAN will go ahead as planned in Nairobi on Wednesday – even though the final line-up of teams is yet to be decided.
Nineteen nations were initially due to take part before Libya and Tunisia withdrew from the finals.
To fill the gaps, Caf is expected to announce details of another qualifying competition to take place ahead of the rearranged tournament.
The withdrawals, along with the fact that more than 10 countries did not enter the initial qualifying competition, have led to questions about the viability of CHAN, which clashes with major domestic leagues from which players would have to be released.
The exact date in August 2025 of the commencement of the African Nations Championship (“Chan”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024 will be announced by CAF in due course.
CHAN 2024 qualified teams
Kenya (co-hosts), Tanzania (co-hosts), Uganda (co-hosts), Angola, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, DR Congo, Guinea, Madagascar, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Zambia.