IFFHS CONTINENTAL NEWS




Picture : the Olembe Sports Complex 



AFCON 2021 main venue set to be inaugurated as Qatar 2022 qualifiers get underway.


The 60,000-seater Olembe Sports Complex, venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the CAF Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations Cameroon 2021 will be inaugurated on Friday, September 3, 2021 in Yaoundé when Cameroon host Malawi in a second round fixture marking qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. It will be the first international match at the stadium which bears the name of the country’s second ever president, Paul Biya. The Olembe Sports Complex, it is hoped, will usher in good tidings as it corrects the wrongs of the 40,000-seater Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium, named after the country’s first president, that hosted the opening and closing ceremonies when the 1972 African Cup of Nations  took place in Cameroon, as the hosts were eliminated at the semifinals by eventual winners, Congo Republic.

The Cameroon versus Malawi game will be one of thirty matches scheduled over the next FIFA window during which the African teams will play two matches each according to the following fixtures:  

                                                                                                                                       


Wednesday,1/9                                                                                                                                                     

Central African Republic/Cape Verde; Guinea Bissau/Guinea;  Senegal/Togo; Mali/Rwanda; Libya/Gabon.                                                                                                                                              


Thursday, 2/9:                                                                                                                                

Kenya/Uganda; DR Congo/Tanzania; Niger/Burkina Faso; Namibia/Congo; Madagascar/Benin; Egypt/Angola; Algeria/Djibouti; Morocco/Sudan.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Friday, 3/9:                                                                                                                                   

Mozambique/Ivory Coast; Zimbabwe/South Africa; Nigeria/Liberia; Mauritania/Zambia; Tunisia/EquatorialGuinea; Cameroon/Malawi; Ghana/Ethiopia.                                                          


Sunday, 5/9:                                                                                                                                               

Rwanda/Kenya; Togo/Namibia; Gabon/Egypt.                                                                                     


Monday,6/9:                                                                                                                                     

Djibouti/Niger; Uganda/Mali; Benin/DR Congo; Liberia/Central African Republic; South  Africa/Ghana; Guinea/Morocco; IvoryCoast/Cameroon.                                                                 


Tuesday,7/9:                                                                                                                                      

Zambia/Tunisia; Malawi Mozambique; Tanzania/Madagascar; Equatorial Guinea/Mauritania; Cape Verde/Nigeria; Congo/Senegal; Ethiopia/Zimbabwe; Burkina Faso/Algeria; Angola/Libya; Sudan/Guinea Bissau.


Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Football, CAF, has requested the British government to grant an exemption to African players for the international window so that they can participate in the qualifiers for their respective countries. CAF has also granted the Central African Republic request to play her home matches at the Japoma Sports Stadium in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala.