The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has allowed increase in the number of players in national lists and the rules related to the match organization in case of positive players in the COVID-19 tests.
In accordance with the guidelines of the FIFA and CAF health protocols against COVID-19 and for the resumption of competitions, players testing positive for the virus are not allowed to participate in matches.
In this particular context, the Emergency Committee of CAF has, in order to allow the different teams engaged in CAF competitions to have a sufficient number of players to participate in the matches, has adopted following the proposal of the Organising Committee of AFCON the following decisions :
– For the competitions where the regulations imposes a list with a limited number of players (Example : Interclubs, Competitions with final tournament system…) : increase the number of players with 10 players; (if for example the regulations imposes a list of 30 players, the number will be increased to 40) ;
– For the competitions where the regulations allows the modification of the players’ list from one match to the other (example : AFCON qualifiers, Women AFCON Qualifiers…etc) : the associations can already travel with unlimited number of players which will allow them to replace any positive player in the PCR COVID19 test ;
– Following the increase of the number of players in the list, the following rule, which is in accordance with the laws of the game will be applied for all CAF competitions: A team will have to make sure to present at least 11 players (including one goal keeper + 4 substitutes) to participate to a match and this regardless of the number of players that would have tested positive to the PCR COVID19 test ;
Should a team not be able to participate to a match, the result of the match will be determined according to the below criteria:
a. if a team does not have the minimum number of players (11 players including 1 goalkeeper + 4 substitutes) to play a match, the team will be considered to have lost the match 2- 0.
b. In case a participating team cannot travel to the host country and/or venue of a Match due to any travel or other restriction relating to COVID-19, the participating team shall be considered to have lost the match 2 – 0.
c. In case a host team cannot organize a match or cannot has not been authorized by its government to receive another team, the host team shall be considered to have lost the match 2 – 0.
d. For exceptional cases, the organizing committee shall be consulted to take a final decision.
– Regarding the substitutions during a match:
a. The number of substitutes allowed on the start list remains unchanged in conformity with each competition’s regulations.
b. Five (5) substitutions will be allowed for Matchdays 3 and 4 of the AFCON 2021 Qualifiers.
It said that all the matches must be played without spectators.
However, should a host association’s government approve that matches can be played with spectators, the host federation must obtain prior approval from CAF. The number of spectators shall not exceed 50% of the stadium capacity.
These measures are effective and are valid only during the current context of global health crisis due to the COVID-19.
