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Home / Brave Warriors profit from Chad’s misery…as CAF announces ban

Brave Warriors profit from Chad’s misery…as CAF announces ban

2021-03-23  Otniel Hembapu

Brave Warriors profit from Chad’s misery…as CAF announces ban

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) yesterday confirmed the disqualification of Chad from the remainder of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers, after CAF accused the Chadian government of interfering in the affairs of that country’s football federation.

Chad’s ministry of youth and sports stripped the country’s football federation of its powers a few weeks ago, following concerns over the way the federation was being run by its leadership. Chad also faces a possible ban from FIFA.

Namibia’s Brave Warriors were set to face Chad tomorrow but following CAF’s pronouncement yesterday that Chad has officially been disqualified from the ongoing 2021 Afcon qualifiers, Namibia along with Mali were both awarded three points each. Chad were also due to travel to Mali at the weekend for their qualifier clash.

As a result of the disqualification, Namibia were declared 3-0 winners over Chad and Mali were also given a 3-0 advantage over the north-central African country. Mali, who have already qualified for the 2021 Afcon finals to be held in Cameroon, are now leading Group A with 13 points from five matches, followed by Guinea with eight points and Namibia in third place with six points. 

Guinea will host Mali tomorrow and a win will see them qualify for the finals along with Mali, but any other outcome disadvantaging Guinea in tomorrow’s match will boost Namibia’s chances of booking a place in the 2021 Afcon, Cameroon, but Namibia will also have to beat Guinea on Sunday, 28 March. Only the top two finishing countries from each group will advance to the Afcon finals.

Following the withdrawal of the Chadian Football Federation approval by the ministry of youth and sports of Chad, CAF has decided to disqualify the Chad national team from the qualifiers for the Total Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021. Consequently, scheduled qualifier matches between Namibia (match 106) and Mali (match 130) for Total Afcon 2021 are canceled. In line with Article 61 read together with Article 64 of the CAF Regulations, Chad is considered a loser of both matches against Namibia and Mali.”

Article 61 of the CAF Regulations reads as follow: “If a team withdraws after the start of the group matches without having played half of the group matches, the overall results of the matches in which this team participated is cancelled. Otherwise, if a team withdraws after participating in all the matches in the first half of the group matches, the remaining matches to be played in the said group are lost by penalty three goals to nil.”

Meanwhile, Article 64 says: “If, for any reason whatsoever, a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, except in cases of force majeure accepted by the organising commission or refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorization of the referee, it shall be considered loser and shall be eliminated for good from the current competition.”

- ohembapu@nepc.com.na


2021-03-23  Otniel Hembapu

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