The Cameroon Football Federation has revealed that the next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will revert to its former time slot of January and February. The declaration came on Wednesday with the federation citing concerns about the weather as what influenced its decision.
Last year's competition which was hosted by Egypt was moved to a June-July slot in order to prevent clashes with the European football calendar. In years past, teams were often reluctant to allow their top performing African players to depart for the tournament amid fears of seeing their season take unfortunate turns in their absence.
Verily, the summer competition which saw 24 countries representing for the first time in Egypt was met with great appraisal and was touted as one of the best-ever organised having ensued during the off season. However, the latest update could arouse objections from some top European clubs who might hesitate in giving their players the green-light to attend to international obligations during the mid-season.
On the back of concerns surrounding the weather, the Cameroon Football Federation says the tournament will be played from January to February 2021.
"The AFCON 2021 will be played in Cameroon from January 9 to February 6, 2021," a post on Cameroon's football federation's official Twitter account read.
"Dates [have been] changed for meteorological reasons at the request of Cameroon."
Cameroon was initially tipped to host last year's tournament, but subsequently lost the rights in November 2018 due to inadequate infrastructure.
