AFCON
SIERRA LEONE LOSE APPEAL IN AFCON REPLAY RULING
Sierra Leone’s bid to enter into the Africa Cup of Nations through the back door has failed as they lost their appeal to be awarded the controversial Match 151 of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with Benin Republic that was to have been played on 30 March.
The match, which will produce the last qualifiers for the final competition was stalemated owing to issues bordering around Covid-19.
According to information gathered, the Beninese delegation was informed that five players tested positive.
CAF revealed that no printed results were presented to the Beninese delegation.
Instead, a handwritten list of the names of the five players was shown to them on arrival at the stadium.
Due to disagreements over the PCR test results, the AFCON organizing committee decided to postpone the match to be played at a later date, namely during the next international match window scheduled for June 2021.
The following day, the Sierra Leone Football Association declared its intention to appeal against the Organizing Committee’s decision to postpone the match.
The CAF Appeal Board has ruled against the Sierra Leone appeal and upheld the decision of the Organizing Committee to postpone the fixture to the June 2021 International window.
CAF explained that it considered the CAF Statutes and Regulations as well as considering the COVID-19 Guidelines.
It ruled that the Sierra Leone FA did not respect its obligations regarding the COVID-19 Protocol, particularly concerning the presentation of the PCR test results as per the CAF COVID 19 Guideline.
It ruled that the appeal of the Sierra Leone Football Association was admissible in form, but was rejected in substance.
Therefore, the AFCON Organizing Committee’s decision of postponing match 151 Sierra Leone vs. Benin of AFCON qualifiers to be played in June 2021 was confirmed.
According to article 48 par. 3 of the CAF Statutes, this decision may be appealed against before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The statement of appeal must be sent to the CAS directly within 10
days of receipt of notification of this decision and shall contain all the elements in accordance with point 2 of the directives issued by the CAS.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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