People around the world have had a challenging week as cities and even whole countries go into lockdown with efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus. But perhaps few have had a week quite as tough as Sao Tome and Principe’s under-17 side.

After losing 10-0 on aggregate to Cameroon in a qualifier for the Fifa U-17 women’s cup, the team have been stuck in Yaounde as successive countries closed their borders just as the flights they were meant to take home were scheduled to leave.

Their original return flight, the day after the heavy loss, was for Sunday, via the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo.

But that morning, Equatorial Guinea closed its borders, so the flight never happened.

Instead, the team were booked for the following morning to go home via Gabon.

But come Monday morning, the same thing happened.

And Cameroon itself has now closed its own borders, meaning the team remain in the country with no exact idea when they might be able to leave.

However, the President of Cameroon’s Football Federation (Fecafoot), Seidou Mbombo Njoya, has told the BBC that his organisation will take responsibility for the team’s stay in the country for as long as they are there.

“We have decided to take charge of the Sao Tome team’s expenses because we feel it’s the safest thing to do at the moment,” Njoya told BBC Sport Africa.

“It’s a pretty difficult situation for that team but we believe it can happen to anyone and now that the coronavirus is spreading panic in the world, we have to support one another.”

Fecafoot’s commitment to its visitors includes covering expenses such as hotels, food, and healthcare.

Cameroon’s football governing body has now liaised with the country’s sports ministry as they push for special measures that could see the women depart the Central African nation soon.

“These are very young girls and we must understand that most of them haven’t thought or had to deal with this sort of situation. It must be a traumatizing situation for them being unable to return to their country,” Mbombo Njoya added.

“These are very difficult times and with the coronavirus wreaking havoc across the world, there’s no doubt these players will feel safer around their parents, friends and loved one.

“Most of them are students who’ve missed a week of studies and we feel very concerned about this because it could’ve been us in this situation.

“Thanks to the intervention from Caf and Fifa, we have been able to charter a flight for the Sao Tome delegation and we’re working closely with the ministry of transport to see if they could be granted special permission to fly out of the country.”

BBC Sport Africa reached out to the head of the Sao Tome and Principe delegation but he has declined to comment on the situation. However, BBC Sport Africa understands the team has remained in high spirits amid the uncertainty.

Source: BBC

CAF medical experts will assess this weekend the measures hosts Cameroon have taken to combat the coronavirus pandemic ahead of the African Nations Championship (CHAN).

The central African country is scheduled to stage from April 4 to 25 the biennial competition for footballers playing in their country of birth.

Cameroon reported two cases of the deadly COVID-19, which has shredded sport schedules across the globe.

On Friday, CAF postponed indefinitely two rounds of 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, set for March 25 to 31.

Regarding the CHAN, a CAF statement said the delegation “would assess the preventive measures taken by the local organising committee”.

Matches are due to be played in the capital, Yaounde, at two stadiums in second city Douala, and seaside city Limbe.

Cameroon qualified automatically for the 16-nation tournament and the other title contenders include defending champions Morocco.

Meanwhile, a two-day conference scheduled for March 17-18 in Durban that would have highlighted the African football industry has been postponed because of the coronavirus.

FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura had been invited to give the keynote speech at an event the organisers now hope to stage in July or August.

Source: AFP

The General Secretary of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Mouad Hajji resigned his post less than a year after he was confirmed in the role.

Despite the official reason being that he was quitting for personal reasons, he left at a time when the continent’s soccer governing body has been embroiled in crisis.

His resignation was accepted by CAF’s Emergency Committee on Tuesday March 3 which also appointed Commercial Director Abdelmounaïm Bah unanimously as Acting General Secretary.

“The members have full confidence in Bah who has exhibited good qualities since joining CAF, particularly during the Total Africa Cup of Nations Egypt 2019.

B“ah assumes office immediately till the next meeting of the CAF Executive Committee. Meanwhile, he will continue to serve as Commercial director, a position he has occupied since June 2018,” an official statement read in part.

The now former General Secretary has previously served as a Moroccan government official. The trained dentist, took over last April from Amr Fahmy, who was sacked for submitting evidence to FIFA’s ethics committee about alleged misappropriation of funds by CAF president Ahmad Ahmad.

CAF has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. An independent review by Price Waterhouse Coopers into CAF operations found “potential elements of mismanagement” and “possible abuse of power” amidst concern about widespread use of cash payments.

Source: Africa News

Nigerians took to social media to celebrate the first goal scored by Odion Ighalo for Manchester United since he joined the English club in January.

Ighalo, who made his first start for United because of an injury to regular forward, Anthony Martial, scored in the 34th minute, tapping in a pass from Juan Mata.

United went on to win the match against Belgian side Club Brugges with five unanswered goals and qualify for the next round of the UEFA Europa League.

The result however spelled the end of the journey for South Africa’s Percy Tau, whose side lost 6-1 over the two legs.

Another African striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also scored for his club side Arsenal, but the English club were eliminated by the away goals rule, having concede two goals at the Emirates Stadium. The tie against Greek side Olympiakos ended 2-2 on aggregate.

Source: African News

Organsing the Africa Cup of Nations every four years, as FIFA proposed “can be a good thing,” according to former Ivorian international and Chelsea forward Didier Drogba.

The Elephants skipper believes it could increase the flavour and rarity of the trophy. Drogba also thinks that this schedule will protect African footballers who play in Europe.

“I think we’re going to have to get to that point [playing in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations every four years] because the African player is quite disadvantaged in relation to his club, and given that there are a lot of African players now playing in Europe, it complicates things a bit.

Already at the time when we played in the African Cup of Nations, which was in January, (a player) to leave for the national team was to jeopardise his place in the starting line-up.

“It was really complicated, not to mention the weather conditions. So it’s going to be an interesting debate and I hope I can contribute to,” Drogba stressed.

The debate over AFCON regularity is not a new one. The most recent case is when FIFA president Gianni Infantino urged the African football organizing body to consider making the AFCON one that happens over four instead of two-years. He says a four-year sequence will give it more impact.

It is one of few major continental competitions that happens every two years as compared to the European and World Cups.

So far, the Confederation of African Football has explained that by organising the event every two years, it encourages the rapid development of infrastructure in the host countries.

Source: Africa News

The African Union of Broadcasting, the body of free-to-air broadcasters, has called for a drop in the rights fees paid by African public broadcasters for major football tournaments held in the continent.

The AUB outlined its position following meetings in Douala, Cameroon with the general directors of public broadcasters.

AUB member broadcasters’ bids for rights to both the 2020 African Nations Championships and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations could be affected by the stance. Both tournaments will be held in Cameroon with the 2021 Afcon having recently been rescheduled to take place in January and February.

Grégoire Djaka, the AUB director general, said that the cost of the broadcast rights “is very high and represents a third of the broadcasters’ budget in some countries”.

Quoted by the Actu Cameroun website, Djaka said that he hopes to “use everything we have in our culture to make these costs accessible to everyone”. He invited the public broadcasters to “address their difficulties in order to take good decisions and improve what has happened until now”.

No guidance has been offered by the AUB in terms of how much it is proposing to reduce its rights costs (or bids) by.

Broadcast rights to the two tournaments have been sold by Lagardère Sports but the Confederation of African Football recently informed the agency of its decision to terminate the $1bn (€903m) agreement, which was due to run from 2017 to 2028.

At the end of last year, the AUB and CRTV, the public broadcaster in Cameroon, ended a dispute over outstanding rights fee payments.

The resolution followed a stand-off over rights fee costs to Fifa competitions and qualifying matches for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

The two parties said in December that they have come to an agreement for CRTV to “do everything possible” to ensure a $160,000 payment is made for rights to Fifa-sanctioned events in 2016. The payment is to be made “without undue delay”.

With regards to an outstanding rights fee for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches, CRTV has vowed to “once again refer the matter to the public treasury [in Cameroon] for the execution of the payment order”.

Source: Sports Business

FC Barcelona legend Samuel Eto’o has jokingly suggested that Didier Drogba owes him two African Footballer of the Year awards.

The African legend officially hung up his boots in September 2019 after glittering success at club level and Cameroon over a remarkable 22-year career.

With 18 major titles, which includes two Africa Cup of Nations winners medals and four African Footballer of the Year awards, Eto’o is considered as one of the greatest the continent has ever produced.

However, in an exclusive interview with Kick Off Magazine, Eto’o claims he probably deserved more as he reflects on his achievements in the game.

Eto’o retires as Cameroon’s all-time record goalscorer with 56 goals in 118 caps between 1997 and 2014.

“Normally, I should have won that award [African Football of the Year] 12 times, but I fought with all of CAF about that,” Eto’o said. “They only gave it to me four times and not 12!”

When pressed that the likes of Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure provided him with healthy competition for the prestigious honour he remained unperturbed: “I think two [African] Ballon d’Ors of Didier is mine!”

Source: KickOff

Senegal and Liverpool forward Sadio Mane was awarded the African best player 2019 at an event in the Egyptian city of Hurghada on January 7. He became the final awardee for the decade 2010 – 2019.

He succeeds Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah who was also shortlisted along with Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez who led Algeria to AFCON glory in 2019. Both contenders were absent at the ceremony.

Mane received the award from the president of the Confederation of African Football, CAF, Ahmad Ahmad. On stage was the first award winner for the decade, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon won his fourth award in 2010 when he was with Italian side Inter Milan.

Mane helped his club side win the UEFA Champions League in the 2018/2019 season and was captain of the Senegal side that lost the 2019 AFCON to Algeria in Egypt.

This was the fourth straight time that he had been shortlisted for the award. He lost in 2016 to Gabons Aubameyang (at the time with Dortmund). Then missed out to Salah twice in 2017 and 2018. Many analysts projected after the AFCON that this was his year despite the final loss.

Who won what on the night:

African Player of the Year: Sadio Mane, Senegal / Liverpool
Best Women’s Player of the Year: Asisat Oshoala, Nigeria / Barcelona FC
African club president of the Year: Moise Katumbi, CEO of TP Mazembe
Federation of the Year: Egyptian Football Association
Djamel Belmadi: Men’s African Coach of the Year
Diseree Ellis: Women’s African Coach of the Year
Special Award: Ex-Togolese intl Kodjovi Obilale, victim of 2010 Cabinda massacre
Goal of the Year: Riyad Mahrez strike against Nigeria in AFCON semis
Men’s Team – Algeria
Women’s Team of the Year – Cameroon
Youth Player of the year – Achraf Hakimi MAR
Interclub player of the year – Youcef Beilali ALG

Source: Africa News