If all goalkeepers in a team fail because of a positive coronavirus test, a field player has to go into the goal. Furthermore, only eleven players per team have to be negative in order for the team to be able to compete in a match. The game would not be rescheduled if the minimum number was not reached, but rated with a 0-2 defeat for the team concerned.
In “exceptional cases” the organizing committee of the Afrikacup reserves the right to make a suitable decision, it said. The substitution quota was set at five players. In order not to interrupt the flow of the game too much, every coach has three options for the change. An additional change is available to the trainers in extensions.
Meanwhile, Senegal’s association announced that it had found four positive results in Saturday’s PCR tests. Accordingly, Koulibaly Kalidou from Napoli, Famara Diedhiou from Alanyaspor and goalie Edouard Mendy from Chelsea are out for the time being. In addition, an unnamed functionary is affected. The Senegalese will meet Zimbabwe on Monday.
Difficult opening win for the “Indomitable Lions”
Burkina Faso also missed six players in addition to team boss Kamou Malo in the opening game due to coronavirus infections. The “indomitable lions” from Cameroon celebrated an arduous 2-1 victory over Burkino Faso in front of around 45,000 spectators in Yaounde.
Gustavo Sangare put the guests in the lead in the 24th minute, two penalties converted by captain Vincent Aboubakar (40th, 45th + 3) turned the game in favor of the Cameroonians within eight minutes, with Salzburg defender Jerome Onguene playing through.
Fight the pandemic
The tournament, which runs until February 6th, is usually held every two years. In 2021 it was postponed for a year because of the pandemic. Cameroon continues to fight the pandemic – and against the highly contagious Omicron variant. According to the health organization Africa CDC, the Central African country has registered just under 109,000 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, of which around 1,850 were fatal.
In the football-loving country with around 28.5 million inhabitants, experts estimate that the number of unreported cases is higher. In addition, according to the American Johns Hopkins Institute, not even three percent of the population are vaccinated. The stadiums should still be used to 80 percent for Cameroon games and 60 percent for all other games – access only for vaccinated people with a negative test.
Unclear security situation
In addition to the debates about player shutdowns and CoV, the tournament will continue to be burdened by the unclear security situation. The north of Cameroon has been rocked by civil unrest and attacks for years. At the end of 2016, the two largest English-speaking regions announced that they would split off and found a new country called Ambazonia.
English-speaking residents of Cameroon have long complained that they are treated like second-class citizens and receive less government funding in mainly French-speaking Cameroon. There are repeated protests against which the security forces sometimes use violence. In addition, separatists repeatedly carry out attacks.
