Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has praised African Nations Championship (CHAN) hosts Algeria ahead of qualifying for the 18-team tournament, which is to begin tomorrow.
On a visit to the country, Motsepe told reporters that he “really liked” what he saw in Algiers.
“I inspected the infrastructure in the capital and was impressed,” he said. “I will be back in September for the finals draw, and also attend the opening match, the semi-finals and the final.”
Photo: AP
Algeria, hosting a CAF tournament for the first time since the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations, is under pressure to have stadiums, training facilities, accommodation and other infrastructure ready in time.
Pre-tournament delays are common in Africa, most recently in Cameroon, which fell so far behind with preparations for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations that it had to be belatedly switched to Egypt.
The central African country staged the following edition this year, but even three years later there was a last-minute scramble to complete preparations.
Two venues in Algiers and one each in Annaba, Constantine and Oran are to stage a unique national team competition, as it is restricted to players representing their country of birth.
However, despite the absence of Europe-based stars such as Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, FIFA categorizes CHAN matches as full internationals and they count toward national team rankings.
The tournament in Algeria, postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has also been subjected to a change of dates with the start put back five days to Jan. 13 next year.
It will also be the first time a CAF competition has been planned with different size groups — three consist of four teams and two have only three teams.
Two teams are to qualify for the quarter-finals from each of the three larger sections, but only one from each of the two smaller ones.
Apart from automatic qualifiers Algeria, Morocco — the defending champions — and former winners Libya have also secured places because they are the only north African entrants in a regional draw.
Tunisia, another team who have lifted the trophy, are barred having withdrawn from the 2020 edition after qualifying, citing domestic fixture congestion.
Egypt have entered only once, for 2018 qualifying, saying clubs have too many national and international commitments to release players for each CHAN.
With three places at the tournament already filled, 42 nations are to compete for 15 other slots with the first two-leg qualifying round scheduled for this month and the second for late next month and early September.
The process is to begin this weekend with 12 first legs. Senegal, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia are among the countries in action. Senegal are away to Liberia, a team they eliminated in 2020 qualifying, while twice runners-up Ghana host Benin, one of 23 nations who have never qualified for the finals.
South Africa hope to improve on a dismal record of only one qualification from five attempts, starting with a match in Comoros.
Zambia are buoyant before a journey to Mozambique having won the annual southern Africa championship last weekend by edging Namibia 1-0 in the final in Durban.
No team will crave victory more than Eswatini, who are away to Botswana having failed to win any of 16 previous qualifiers.
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