Sports
THE Confederation of African Football (Caf) has rescheduled two matches in the Champions League for 28 February to be played at neutral venues.
Both ties involve teams from South Africa who were unable to secure the necessary visas to travel due to restrictions imposed because of the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic
Algeria’s CR Belouizdad will now face South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns in Tanzania at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
The Group B encounter had been due to play in Algeria on Tuesday 23 February.
The other tie to be rearranged is Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca against Kaizer Chiefs, who will now play n Burkina Faso at 4 August Stadium in Ouagadougou.
The Group C match was initially meant to be played on 13 February in Morocco while a later suggested date of six days later in Egypt was rejected by Kaizer Chiefs.
Both the Burkina Faso and Tanzania football authorities have both given the go ahead for the matches to be played in their countries.
However last week the South Africa Football Association wrote to Caf about the issue of its clubs travelling to play matches and one of the points was that it does not support games being played on neutral venues.
@All our clubs/national teams will not use neutral venues, as there is no substantial health reasons to do so,” the letter stated.
The issue of travel restrictions has also affected games in both the the European Champions League and Europe League with several tied being played at neutral venues.
BBC Sport
– Feb. 23, 2021 @ 18:56 GMT /
Tags: African Champions League: Caf reschedules matches
