Soccer-Morocco find tougher World Cup preparations but other African sides wait

Morocco will take on two South American opponents in friendlies in September in the build-up to the World Cup while Africa’s four other Qatar-bound teams are hoping they too can face strong opposition in the run-up to the tournament. The continent’s five representatives for the World Cup in November are due to play Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in the next international window between September 19-27 — the last opportunity for national teams to get together until one week before the World Cup kicks off in Doha on Nov. 21.

Morocco have a bye after their September opponents Zimbabwe were kicked out of the Cup of Nations qualifiers because of a FIFA ban. Instead, they will now play two friendlies in Spain, against Chile in Barcelona on Sept. 23 and Paraguay in Seville on Sept. 27, the Morocco Football Federation said on Friday.

But the other African World Cup representatives — Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia — are still committed to Cup of Nations qualifiers in September, which Senegal coach Aliou Cisse has dismissed as too weak. Senegal play Mozambique, who sit in 118th position in the latest FIFA rankings; Cameroon take on Namibia (117th), Tunisia meet neighbours Libya (120th) and Ghana are up against Angola (122nd place). All matches are home and away in the group stage of the Cup of Nations preliminaries.

While European countries are tied up in September with Nations League matches, the World Cup-bound African countries could play against Asian, South American or North American opposition in what would be more testing preparations. Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe said postponing September’s Cup of Nations qualifiers was being discussed.

“We want to try and help our teams that are going to Qatar and we now have more space on the calendar now that the Cup of Nations finals have been moved,” he told a news conference on Friday. CAF earlier this month announced the next Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast are to move from mid-2023 to January 2024 because of concern over the rainy season in mid-year in the region.

It means they could move the qualifiers to windows in March and June next year and open up September for friendly games. (Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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