11 January 2021- The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Organizing Committee has made a decision to reschedule the second leg Total CAF Confederation Cup encounter between Rivers United and Bloemfontein Celtic. 

The second leg match between Rivers and Celtic was initially scheduled to be take place on 6 January 2020 in Port Harcourt.

However, Celtic could not travel to Nigeria due to the strict coronavirus regulations by the Nigerian Government which required the Bloemfontein based club to be quarantined for seven days upon arrival due to South Africa being designated as one of the high risk countries. 

The decision to reschedule the match comes after SAFA reached out to CAF to seek guidance on the matter after Celtic’s initial appeal to the Nigerian FA and Nigerian government was turned down.  

The CAF Committee has since decided on the following:

  1. The match will be rescheduled for the weekend of the 22-24 January 2021 and it will be played in a neighbouring country to Nigeria with more lenient COVID-19 protocols regarding travellers coming from South Africa.
  2. The Nigerian Football Federation to decide and communicate the venue, date, kick-off-time and the approval of the neutral host association by 12 January 2021 at the latest. 
  3. The designation of the match officials are maintained.
  4. Rivers United FC to take charge of all organizational expenses in the neutral country as the host club and to ensure that the visiting team has the approval for entry in the neutral country.
  5. The additional player registration period starts on the 10th of January 2021, the two teams shall not be allowed to field any of the players registered during this period for this match. 

For further information please contact:

SAFA: Head of Communications

Dominic Chimhavi

Email: dominic.chimhavi@safa.net

Mobile: +27 71 332 9886