AFCON 2021 change, A set back for European club says George Findi

AFCON 2021 change, A set back for European club says George Findi

By Adejuyigbe Olorunfemi

Former Nigerian international Finidi George says European clubs will be at disadvantage following the rescheduling of the 2021 Africa's Cup of nation by CAF. Bsnsports.com.ng reports

CAF made the announcement earlier this week that the next edition of the tournament will be played in January-February 2021, which will definitely affect club football.

A similar situation as this occurred before the 2017 Africa cup of Nation started in which due to the harsh weather in Cameroon, CAF had to ensure the tournament was brought back to the beginning of the year.

George findi who has won the AFCON tournament with Nigeria in1994, believes that this decision will affect European clubs who have African players in their team.

“It’s good but I think it’s going to obstruct the European calendar a bit,” George told Goal.

“We had that before and we had lots of complaints and now they are going back to the former arrangement which is certainly not good news for European teams.

“I don’t know how they will take that because we have a lot of African players in Europe and if most of them will leave for [the] Nations Cup – that will create some problems. However, they should be able to figure it out.

“For instance, a team like Liverpool will complain because their star players [Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita] would be unavailable to prosecute key matches.

“These players are getting well paid and if they are leaving in January when most clubs are struggling or trying to win a league. That will be a problem.”