Ghana’s Black Satellites have been handed automatic ticket to represent the country in the upcoming 2019 African Games men’s football tournament.
They replace the Under-23s, Black Meteors who had reached the final stage of the qualifiers following changes made to the football competition by the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
The changes which came at short notice state that the seven U-20 men’s teams which qualified for the final tournament of the 2019 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Niger will join hosts Morocco in the competition which is normally played by U-23 teams.
This means the Black Meteors will have to only focus on beating Algeria later in September to qualify for the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations tournament which will serve as a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
According to a communiqué sent out on Monday, May 13 signed by Caf Acting General Secretary Anthony Baffoe to the football federations of Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa and Senegal, their U-20 teams had qualified following a decision of the Caf Emergency Committee in the wake of the U-23 final round of qualifiers having been postponed from June to September.
“We have the pleasure of informing you that the Caf Emergency Committee has decided that the teams which qualified for the final tournament of the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, Niger 2019 will replace the U-23 teams in qualifying for the African Games which will take place in Morocco from 19 to 31 August 2019,” read part of the communiqué.
In their communication, Caf stated that the postponement of the U-23 qualifiers had come about so that nothing disrupted preparations for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The continental football body further advised the qualified teams that they had until the end of May to confirm their participation in the 2019 African Games.
The African Games, which previously doubled as the qualification tournament for the Olympic men’s football competition, are held every four years.
No Black Queens
A decision to allow only teams who played and qualified for the 2018 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations join African Games hosts Morocco means Ghana will not be participating in the women’s football tournament.
The Black Queens did not participate in the qualifiers to the Women’s Afcon hence the Caf new directive sees Morocco taking up their place.
Originally, Caf had scheduled February to April for the qualifiers to the 2019 African Games but cancelled the arrangement.
The eight to compete in the women’s football tournament are now Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, Zambia, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Algeria.
The football tournament at the 2019 African Games to be held in Morocco is scheduled for August 16-30.
