Following CAF’s decision to call off the impending AFCON 2021 Tournament to the succeeding year due to the Corona virus, Head Coach of The Gambia Scorpions has added his voice to CAF’s decision describing its as “understandable”.
A CAF communique dispatched to all MAs following a video conference meeting held on Tuesday, 30 June 2020, has discussed the future of competitions and other related issues following the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently the Committee unanimously agreed after consultation with stakeholders to reschedule the Afcon tournament to January 2022 instead of January 2021.
Reacting to the decision Head Coach of the Scorpions Tom Sainfiet, said the situation around the COVID-19 is complex. ”CAF decided to move Afcon 2021 to 2022, is an understandable decision. The situation around the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is very complex and difficult to make planning ahead. Some countries are moving ahead and others have a second thought so I understand why they push it” he said.
The Belgian tactician added that, the Gambia as Group D leaders would have preferred to continue with the qualifiers “ but as things stand is better with it until it is safe to play football”. Saintfiet noted that the Gambia would have preferred to play early because “if you are leading your group and on the brink of qualification for the first time to a tournament of this magnitude, you want to play as soon as possible the next games and qualify at once”. He applauded CAF for their wise decision. “We have to respect the decision because that is the only correct decision at this point in time”.
Saintfeit said he is in regular contact with all of the players while further monitoring their progress at their respective leagues.
“They are all eager to resume playing. All of them naturally are happy that there is news but they all miss playing for the country and they have the same feeling as the fans and all of us”. He said the long postponement of the Afcon will avail the team and the GFF opportunity to start planning ahead before the resumption of the remaining Four matches.
