The Head of Namibia Football Association (NFA) Women’s Desk Jacky Gertze said the news of the cancellation of the 2020 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations comes as a big disappointment to Namibia.
After three months of football suspension owing to Covid-19, the African football governing body announced the scrapping of the 2020 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations following its Executive Committee meeting on June 30.
The World football governing body FIFA has also reacted to the cancellation with disappointment on Friday.
Gertze this morning told Eagle FM that the cancellation of the Awcon adds on to the already negative impact COVID-1 has had on Namibian football.
The Brave Gladiators were supposed to play a qualifying match against Botswana in April which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
“Our national team was already busy with preparations in this regard while preparing in March the lockdown was announced not just for us but for our opponents in Botswana,” Gertze said.
This was supposed to be the first qualifier match.
Later in March, Confederation of Africa Football announced all matches were cancelled for the time being.
“Then CAF announced all football would stop in that regard one could already foresee its possible that this competition would not take place,” Gertze said.
Although CAF tried to reschedule the qualifying matches to September and October, Gertze said there was a hint to the postponement or cancellation.
Last year, Congo withdrew as the official host for the 2020 women’s Afcon which left that spot vacant.
Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea applied to host the event however, no official announcement was made yet.
Gertze said this further means the Brave Gladiators will be inactive until next year as they wait for word on whether the women’s COSAFA Cup will take place.
“If that was going to take place without the Afcon that would have been a good opportunity for the National senior team to participate,” Gertze.
Gertze, however, commended CAF for putting the health and safety of the players first.
