Mozambique coach welcomes decision to move Afcon to 2022

Mozambique coach Luís Goncalves has welcomed the decision to postpone the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The decision was recently made to move the tournament to 2022, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“It is an understandable decision in view of the current situation since the pandemic is not yet over,” said the Portuguese coach, even though he will have to wait until October to finally get to work with his players again when international football is due to resume.

“The length of time between the last game and the next one will prove very damaging. But, the most important thing is to have the best conditions so that when football comes back, everything goes on as normally as possible.

“It remains for us to wait for the schedule of the games since the desire of everyone is to return as soon as possible to honour the national jersey.”

Mozambique made a positive start to their bid to qualify for the next Afcon in their opening two qualifiers played in November.

They beat Rwanda at the start of Group C action and then drew 2-2 away in the Cape Verde Islands. They are due to play Cameroon next.

Mozambique last qualified for the Cup of Nations finals in 2010.

As of Friday, Mozambique have recorded 1092 Covid-19 infections, with nine deaths and 340 recoveries. The number of active cases have also been steeply rising, on June 1 there were 151 with that number skyrocketing to 753 currently.

In partnership with ANA and Sports Leo