FIFA Postpones June World Cup Qualifiers In Africa. Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), confirmed on Thursday that the 2022 World Cup qualifiers scheduled for Africa during June have been postponed until September due to the coronavirus and stadiums not meeting international standards.
There will now be double matchdays in September, October, and November with the 10 group winners advancing to the final round next March.
Africa has been allocated five places at the 32-nation tournament in Qatar, which has been moved from its traditional mid-year setting to November and December because of extreme summer heat.
Had two matchdays been staged in June, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone would not have been able to stage qualifiers.
Recently elected Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe from South Africa has prioritized improving poor facilities and pitches at many national stadiums.
FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations Headquartered in Zurich ,Switzerland , its membership now comprises 211 national associations.
These national associations must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceanic and South America
Today, FIFA outlines a number of objectives in the organizational Statutes, including growing association football internationally, providing efforts to ensure it is accessible to everyone, and advocating for integrity and fair play.
FIFA is responsible for the organization and promotion of association football’s major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930.
Although FIFA does not solely set the rules of the game, that being the responsibility of the international football association board of which FIFA is a member, it applies and enforces the rules across all FIFA competitions.
All FIFA tournaments generate revenue from sponsorship; in 2018, FIFA had revenues of over US $4.6 billion, ending the 2015–2018 cycle with a net positive of US$1.2 billion, and had cash reserves of over US$2.7 billion.