CAIRO – Continental football governing body – Caf announced, Monday the disqualification of Chadian national team from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
This follows the suspension of the Chadian Football Federation by
The Director of Communications at Caf, Alexandre Siewe said in a press release dated March 22 that decision was premised on Chadian Ministry of Youth and Sports suspension of the country national federation.
“Following the suspension of the Chadian Football Federation by the Chadian Ministry of Youth and Sports, Caf has decided to disqualify the National Team of Chad from the qualifiers of Total African Cup of Nations 2021,” reads the statement posted Caf official website.
According to Caf, Chad forfeits the next two games that they were supposed to play in the Afcon qualifiers as opponents bag maximum points each, which is in line with Caf regulations.
“Consequently, scheduled qualifier matches between Namibia (match 106) and Mali (match 130) for Total Afcon 2021 are canceled.
“In line with Article 61 read together with Article 64 of the Caf Regulations, Chad is considered a loser of both matches against Namibia and Mali,” reads the statement.
Chad were playing in Group A alongside Mali, Guinea and Namibia. After four match days, Mali tops the group on 10 points, with Guinea following on eight points while and Namibia has three as Chad were trailing the group with a single point.
Article 61 of the regulations stipulates that If a team withdraws without having played half of the group matches, the overall results of the matches in which this team participated are cancelled. Otherwise, if a team withdraws after participating in all the matches in the first half of the group matches, the remaining matches to be played in the said group are lost by three goals to nil.
On the other hand, article 64 stipulates that if a team withdraws from the competition or does not report for a match, except in cases of force majeure or refuses to play or leaves the ground before the regular end of the match without the authorization of the referee, it shall be considered looser and shall be eliminated for good from the competition.
This is however not the first time Chad has had challenges with Afcon qualifiers as in 2017, the national withdrew due to financial constraints.
