Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit African football after Sundowns’ trip to Algeria for CR Belouizdad clash cancelled
The coronavirus pandemic continues to hit African football with many Caf Inter Club games facing cancellation fate including Mamelodi Sundowns clash with CR Belouizdad.
As it stands now, traveling of the South African side has already been cancelled following announcement by Caf.
Many previous games in the Caf Champions League and Confederation Cup ended in bizarre manner where the likes of Al Hilal and Asante Kotoko were handed a technical victory therefore progressing to the next stage of Caf Inter Club competitions without a kick in second leg ties.
A couple of games have also been rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic with game between Kaizer Chiefs and Wydad Athletic Club emerging as one of the games to be affected by ‘set new date’ after the initial scheduled was cancelled.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) set a new date for that tough game but the rescheduled date has also been reject by the Egyptian Football Association just last Wednesday amid fears of South African presence.
Currently, South Africa lead African countries with high covid-19 cases and therefore face high traveling restriction from opposing countries. In other part of the African continent, South Africa are even blocked with entry especially in Northern parts of the continent.
Mamelodi Sundowns is the latest club from the South Africa to be denied access entering the North African part with Algeria placing high covid-19 protocols in-doors that block the Brazilians’ supposedly travel on Thursday.
The South African giants were due to fly to Algiers today for their CAF Champions League match against CR Belouizdad on Tuesday next week.
At the time of compiling the story, the reason behind the cancellation of the flight to Algeria was not yet confirmed but it is believed to be due to Covid-19 restrictions in that country.
According to a source close to Sundowns, the news was delivered to the players this afternoon after they had already secured their visas last week.
“Sundowns is no longer leaving to Algeria. The club was due to fly to Algeria this evening but now it has been cancelled,” the source tells KickOff.com.
Efforts to get hold of Sundowns official Yogesh Singh to confirm these events proved futile after he failed to return calls.
