The Confederation of African Football has ruled out the relocation of matches scheduled outside of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
CAF has issued a statement following the request of several national associations for matches’ relocation over their concerns about hosting or visiting the team of an Ebola-affected country.
“CAF has not changed or made amendments to the announced schedule of fixtures for match days one and two of the final group phase of qualifying for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2015,” the continental governing body for football announced on its official site on Thursday.
“Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia remain the only countries required to relocate their fixtures to neutral territories as a result of the situation of the Ebola virus as stated in our circular to member countries on 12th August, 2014.
“CAF will reassess the situation in mid-September 2014 in order to allow or not these affected countries to receive teams and organise CAF matches and competitions.
“Further, we would like to draw to attention to the didactic perspective and recommendations of the WHO, and reiterate our call to all National Associations to use their respective national agencies to continue sensitization on the Ebola virus and thus contribute to uplifting minds and promote good practices.
“In addition, according to the same WHO recommendations, it is extremely important that every Federation, whose country is affected by the virus, should ensure that their respective delegations travelling abroad can be examined before their departure in order to ensure that no member can transmit Ebola.
“On the other hand, each National Association receiving delegations is obliged to communicate all the necessary information delivered by health authorities to ensure the reception of teams and officials from various countries, including those from affected countries, and to proceed, if necessary, to additional checks at arrival points if required.”
As far as the Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2015 qualifiers are concerned, the complaints come mainly from nations scheduled to host Guinea (Uganda) and Sierra Leone (Côte d’Ivoire) or to visit Nigeria (Congo) and DR Congo (Cameroon).
And should the authorities of those countries stick to their positions, we could witness some shock withdrawals from the competition.
