Ghana’s two female national teams – the U-17s and U-20s – have been told to bring an end to their camping in Cape Coast on Monday, October 19 till further notice.
A statement by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) says this became necessary as a result of a decision by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) to call off upcoming qualifying matches for the Fifa U-17 World Cup.
Ghana’s Black Maidens were preparing to face West African rivals Nigeria in the final qualifying round to the 2021 Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup in India – the first leg of which was scheduled for October 30 in Cape Coast with the reverse leg in Lagos three weeks later.
But a Caf correspondence addressed to the GFA indicates the final round qualifiers are on hold because the dates and venue for the final tournament have not been firmly decided.
It states that: “Reference to the decision already taken by Caf in August 2020 concerning the rescheduling of the U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers due to the current situation of COVID -19 in Africa, we would like to inform you that Caf Competitions Division had a meeting with their Fifa counterpart to inquire about the dates and Venue of the Final Tournament of Fifa U-17 WWC-2021.
“Therefore, Fifa indicated that the dates and Venue of the said Final Tournament are not yet confirmed.
“Consequently, the new retained dates for the second round will be communicated to you as soon as they are decided by the competent bodies.”
A similar decision was also earlier taken to postpone the qualifying matches for the U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The Black Maidens and the Black Princesses had been camping in Cape Coast since August in preparation for their respective qualifying matches.
The teams are expected to resume camping when Fifa and Caf agree on new dates for their qualifying matches.
