Confederation of African Football, CAF has directed that all the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches billed for this month are to be played behind closed doors.
This is part of the security guidelines released this Friday after a videoconference involving the national safety and security officers of respective member nations.
The conference under the chairmanship of Dr Christian Emeruwa of Nigeria was conveyed largely to educate them on the new safety and security protocol imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and to supervise the resumption of qualifying matches for the Africa Cup of Nations Cameroon 2021.
Emeruwa is the Head of the Safety and Security Department of CAF. At the video conference, he remarked: “Our goal is to ensure that there is uniformity in safety and security operations across Africa with an emphasis on making sure that the matches are played under a safe and secured environment.
“We are mindful of the enormous task ahead, especially how to keep spectators and supporters away from the stadium. Hence, we felt the need to guide all National safety and security officers and appointed CAF safety and security officers on best practices under these conditions.
“The protection of the players and officials before, during, and after the match is of great importance in our operations. We need to ensure effective coordination between safety and security officers and all other health officers that will be involved in delivering each match….”
The national safety and security officers will receive a detailed protocol, specific to each match, which will guide them through the various stages of the organization of the matches scheduled for November 9 to 17.
Since the creation in February 2019 of the Safety and Security Department, CAF has worked closely with the security officers of the member associations through meetings, seminars, and training; capacity building sessions in accordance with the objectives of the organization to place safety and security operations during organized football matches as a top priority of its action.
