CHAN 2024: CAF Suspends Kickoff Definitely To August

With 17 days to the commencement of the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in East Africa, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in an official statement, further postponed it with a six-month duration for adequate preparations and strategic planning while some countries having already announced their squads and begun training camps.

The biennial tournament which is for domestic-based players, was set to take place between February 1 to 28 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, has now been shifted to August with the exact dates of the rescheduled tournament to be announced in due course.

According to the official statement, the Africa’s Football Governing Body said that its experts had advised that more time is required to ensure the infrastructure and facilities for the competition are at the levels necessary.

“I am confident that the stadiums, other infrastructure and facilities will be at the requisite Caf standards for hosting, in August 2025, a very successful CHAN,” CAF President Patrice Motsepe said.

It is imperative to note that the CHAN 2024 hosting rights were awarded to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in December 2023. Meanwhile, the second-tier competition is considered as a dress rehearsal before the three East African countries is set to become the first three-way hosts of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.

Despite the postponement, the group stages draw for CHAN 2024 will go underway in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya on Wednesday, January 15. However, the final line-up of teams is yet to be decided as 19 national teams were initially due to take part before Libya and Tunisia withdrew their participations.

To make up for the numbers, CAF is expected to announce details of another qualifying rounds to take place ahead of the rearranged tournament. In other news, the tournament’s prize money was increased for the winners by 75% to $3.5m (£2.8m), while the total prize money on offer is at $10.4m (£8.5m).