Coronavirus: DR Congo Becomes 1st African Country To Suspend All Football Activities

DR Congo Becomes 1st African Country To Suspend All Football Activities

By Admin

The Democratic Republic of Congo have become the first African country to suspend all football related activities for 30 days due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Sports activities around the globe have been either suspended or cancelled due the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, with major football leagues all around the world being halted including the Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1, La Liga and MLS to name a few.

However, as previously confirmed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Africa isn’t considered a high-risk area yet according to the World Health Organization [with a reported amount of 158 cases] and no continental competitions were to be suspended.

Now, just four days after having discovered their first confirmed corona case DR Congo have decided to postpone their professional league for 30 days starting Monday, March 16th, along with all other football activities.

TP Mazembe are currently on top of the league table with 53 points, eight ahead of second place AS Vita Club and with two games in hand. All fixtures will be played this weekend before the league’s cancellation.

Additonally, in their statement the country’s football federation confirmed that the national team training camp for the 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN) will still take place as the competitions hasn’t been cancelled.

These decisions came just one day after CAF decided to postpone all of the 2021 AFCON qualifiers matches as a precautionary measure.

Other countries have dealt with the COVID-19 situation differently such as Egypt, Morocco and Algeria who decided to play their league games behind closed doors. Meanwhile, South Africa and Tanzania opted to just suspend handshakes before matches.