23 November 2017 – The Confederation of African Football recently held an Executive Committee meeting and agreed to move match dates for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
This came as a result of a request from the five countries that will represent the continent at the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament in June.
“At the request of the qualified teams – Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia – the CAF Executive Committee approved the postponement of the second day matches of the Total AFCON 2019 qualifiers scheduled for March 2018, to allow the African representatives for Russia to take advantage of this FIFA period to prepare for the World Cup,” said CAF in a statement.
With one round of qualifiers already played for AFCON 2019, the next fixture will be in September on the weekend of 3 – 11 – the initial date of March 2019 will now be used for friendly matches.
Round three and four will be played between 8 – 16 October 2019, with Match Day 5 scheduled for November 12 – 20 2019.
The final round will be staged in March 2019.
South Africa has already played and defeated Nigeria 2-0 in the opening match of the qualifiers held in Uyo, Nigeria.
The Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, which is the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, will be hosted by Cameroon.
The completion will be in June and July 2019 as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017 to move the Africa Cup of Nations from January/February to June/July for the first time.
Here are new dates for the qualifiers:
Match Day 2:
3-11 September 2018
Match Day 3 & 4:
8 – 16 October 2018
Match Day 5:
12 – 20 November 2018
Match Day 6:
18 – 26 March 2019