CAF changes Afcon schedules

Sports Reporter

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has changed the schedule of qualifiers for the next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and 2022 Fifa World Cup.

  The World Cup qualifiers had been set to start in March‚ with the draw for the group stages to take place on January 21‚ but are now to be done in October. The final four rounds of Afcon qualifiers for a place in the finals in Cameroon have been shifted to January-February next year.

  Coach Molefi Ntseki’s Bafana Bafana started the campaign with a loss to Ghana, followed by a win against Sudan. They now face home and away matches against minnows Sao Tome & Principe between March 23 and 31.

  Bafana will then host Ghana between June 1 and 9 for their penultimate match, then face Sudan between August 31 and September 8; probably having already qualified as one of the top two teams in their group.

  The World Cup group qualifiers will then get underway‚ starting in October 5-13, and November 9-17‚ before a double-header in March 22-30, 2021.

  The penultimate round will be between August 30-September 7‚ 2021‚ and the group stages will be concluded in October 4-12 next year.

  If Bafana qualify for the final round of knockout qualifiers‚ which will be home and away‚ the matches will be played in November 8-16‚ 2021.