FTF Becomes First To Announce Post Covid-19 National Team Camping

FTF Becomes First To Announce Post Covid-19 National Team Camping

By Editor

Tunisia's football federation (FTF) says its national squad will gather for training later this month, becoming one of the world's first associations to announce an international meet-up since the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Carthage Eagles will assemble for the first time since November after their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in March were called off because of the pandemic.

The FTF says the training camp will be split into two stages in line with safety protocol.

"Many players came to Tunisia in March and were left with no official training," Tunisia's head coach, Mondher Kebaier, told the FTF website. external-link

"We wanted to seize this opportunity to set up a two stage training camp for the national team to get the players in the best physical and tactical shape.

"We want our players to be prepared both physically and mentally. We haven't seen them together since November 2019 so it's crucial that when the activities resume, we are well prepared on every aspect," Kebaier added.

He revealed that the first stage of the training camp - between 8-13 June - will be limited to 13 players because of quarantine measures and will include the likes of Al Shabab's Farouk Ben Mustapha and Etoile du Sahel's Mohamed Amine Ben Amor.

13 more players will join the squad on 16 June with Taha Yassine Khenissi of Esperance amongst those attending.

"We can have full sized training sessions as of 14 June, as per the recommendations of Tunisian authorities," Kebaier said.

The FTF said it had been working on plans for the safe resumption of training for some time.

"The decision wasn't random. We've been working throughout this pandemic to devise a plan to resume football activities," Hichem Ben Omrane, head of Tunisia's national teams committee told BBC Africa Sport.

"We have collaborated with a number of established doctors in the country and came up with a thorough guideline on how to do that.

"Once we got the green light from the authorities, it was time to implement what we put together. We want our players to be ready."

Tunisia are currently top of their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group with two wins from two. Their World Cup group qualifiers are scheduled to begin in October 2020.

The Tunisian Football League, where many of Tunisia's internationals play their club football, has been suspended since mid March.

The top league teams are scheduled to resume training on 4 June with the 2019/2020 season set to resume on 2 August.