Brave Warriors coach, Collin Benjamin, says the postponement of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifiers means he has to come up with a different approach as he had already made plans for the preparations for the matches that were to be played in September.
Speaking to Nampa on Sunday following the confirmation by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee that the qualifiers have been revised, Benjamin said he will now meet with his principals to map a new way forward.
“I would love to have the boys come together with their international colleagues who were not part of the COSAFA tournament. If we can get a friendly match with one of the West-African countries, that will help as we prepare to face Cameroon home and away,” Benjamin said.
He also confirmed that he had already given local-based players a programme to help them work on their strength and conditioning, while he had also planned to bring them into the Namibia Football Association Technical Center for a mini-camp sometime next week.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee on Sunday approved a revised TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 qualification calendar, following their meeting on Friday in Tanzania.
In a statement posted on CAF’s official website for CAF, the committee said this was necessitated by the need to make room for the African nations that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November/ December to prepare adequately.
“Consequently, the September 2022 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire match day three and match day four qualifiers have been moved to 20 to 28 March 2023. Matchday five will now be on 12 to 20 June 2023, while match day six will be played on 4 to 12 September 2023,” the statement reads
The first two rounds were completed in June this year.
“The decision to delay the qualifiers was eased when the finals, originally scheduled to be held in June and July next year in Ivory Coast, were postponed to January and February 2024, in a bid to avoid the rainy season,” the statement continued.
Senegal, who won the 2022 AFCON tournament in February, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia have qualified for the World Cup to be staged in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
