Starlets coach Ouma slams CAF decision to cancel 2020 AWCON

Harambee Starlets head coach David Ouma feels that the Confederation of African Football (Caf) shouldn’t have cancelled the 2020 Africa Women Cup of Nations (Awcon) but should have instead rescheduled it to a later date.

In part of decisions reached on a virtual meeting  held Tuesday June 30 by the CAF Executive Committee, the continental football governing body decided to cancel the Awcon tourney and approved the creation of the first ever Africa Women’s Champions League.

The development means the continental showpiece which was to be staged in November 2020 in DR Congo will not take place since it was last played in Ghana in 2018.

Ouma termed the decision a ‘bad option’ since a lot of teams were already prepared for the assignment

“In my opinion I feel that Caf should have postponed the tournament to 2021 instead of scraping it.

“It(Caf) has taken seriously the fight against Corona pandemic by scraping the league but somehow they should have slated it to a  later date because many teams had already prepared physically and physiologically.

“I was preparing my team by all means. We were fresh from taking part in the Turkish Women’s Cup where we managed to finish third and we were ready to face Tanzanian Twiga Stars in April then later meet Dr Congo or Sao Tome and Principe in the last round of the qualifying stage before Corona virus broke out,” Ouma lamented.

“Let’s be factual, every woman footballer’s dream is to take part in the highest ranked tournament in the continent which is Awcon. The tournament gives players a chance to showcase their talent and market their own skills worldwide for a chance to be called to European clubs, so scraping it will dim their chances of achieving all that.

“To me they should have borrowed a leave from what other sports, like athletics, have done where the big marathons have been pushed forward including the Diamond Leagues.”

In July 2019, Caf made a positive step by expanding the number of Awcon participants from 8 to 12 teams, the first format after 11 editions.

 

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Harambee Starlets Head Coach David Ouma AWCON cancelled

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