The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
Confederation of African Football president, Ahmad Ahmad, has urged the game’s stakeholders across the continent to not only abide by the directives of their governments and health authorities in combating the coronavirus but also stand ready to resume competitions when the pandemic is declared over.
“Let’s stay disciplined as part of health measures taken in the general interest, but let’s stay ready to put the work apron back on and breathe new life into football, our football, with vigour and selflessness.
“History will judge us for the scope of our actions today to secure a bright future tomorrow,” Ahmad said.
Zimbabwe, just like many countries, is currently under lockdown with football and all sporting activities in the nation suspended for 60 days following measures adopted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Government to ensure the spread of the deadly coronavirus is contained.
CAF, on their part, have also suspended all their competitions indefinitely as Africa joined in the fight against Covid-19, which first surfaced in the Wuhan province in China.
At the time that CAF scrapped their competitions, Zimbabwe’s Warriors were angling at a double assault on the African Nations Championships (Chan) tournament and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.
The Chan tourney in which the Warriors were due to face hosts Cameroon on the opening day, was pencilled in to start on April 5, just seven days after they would have completed their back-to-back Group H Afcon qualifiers against Algeria.
But with all football in Africa in limbo except in Burundi where the league has played on, Ahmad called on all nations to stand ready to bounce back into action when Covid-19 is eventually contained.
Ahmad urged the continent’s role-players to be ready to lead the recovery of the game once the coronavirus pandemic has subsided noting that stakeholders need to ready themselves to swing back into action when it is safe to do so.
“In these painful times full of worry, it only comes to my mind that all of our populations, all our living sources and our youth, will emerge from this pandemic in good health and in optimal shape to attack the recovery of our activities with courage and determination,” Ahmad said.
“Football, which brings together passions from all over the world, remains, of course, very much awaited on our continent and CAF is already focused on the conditions for re-launching our competitions and our events.
“A revival that we are studying in its smallest parameters, because it will awaken the zeal of our fellow leaders, presidents, players, technical, administrative and medical staff, and all our large family.”
Ahmad says that football needs to go back to basics when it does resume so that it can ensure its long-term revival and survival.
“Never has a crisis of such great magnitude crossed the world, never has world sport decreed so many postponements of its programmes, never has such a tsunami struck the most basic sporting practice!” he said.
“We are now condemned to rebuild the basics, or at least to reinforce them, to energise them so that the time of recovery will be the best structured and the best disposed to conquer or re- conquer the dry territories of sport and football.
“I know the degree of passion of Africans for world football, their own football, their competitions, their championships and also for their legends and current stars, and I know that at the signal given by the health authorities, they will demonstrate in a masterful way, an exceptional commitment to give life again to our beautiful competitions, permanent attraction stuck directly to our social and cultural lives in each of our 54 nations.”
