The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has called off the Uganda Cranes camp that was preparing for the 2020 Championship of Africa Nations (CHAN).
The development comes a day after Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced that the tournament had been postponed due to the escalating health concerns in regard to the COVID-19 (Corona Virus).
While addressing the media during the FUFA Weekly press briefing on Wednesday, FUFA CEO, Edgar Watson Suubi confirmed that the Uganda Cranes camp has been suspended.
With CAF announcing that the 2020 CHAN tournament is called off, it was inevitable for us. We aslo decided to stop the national team camp. For now, the camp has been stopped and the players will return to their respective teams.
We want to urge the football fraternity to remain vigilant and follow the guidelines put in place by government, the World Health Organization and FIFA in regards to COVID-19.
In a letter written to all nations that were supposed to take part in the biennial championship, CAF Acting General Secretary, Abdel Bah confirmed that the tournament has been postponed to a date yet to be communicated.
Following the growing concern of the COVID-19 virus and the report of the recently concluded Medical Inspection visit to the history country of the Total CHAN, Cameroon 2020 CAF Emergency Committee decided today to postpone the competition until further notice. Travelling across the continent is growing increasingly complicated and even impossible for some countries, due to the restrictions put in place by the different governments.
Uganda Cranes head coach Jonathan McKinstry believes the postponement of the tournament comes with challenges but insists life is more important.
We are definitely affected by the postponement of the tournament considering the preparations we have had and the cohesion the players had formed but of course life is more important and we respect the decision made. We shall keep monitoring the situation and know how we handle the situation.
CAF administration will propose the potential new dates in due time depending on the improvement of the situation.
Uganda is one of the 16 nations that qualified for the 2020 CHAN edition that was supposed to start in April.
The Uganda Cranes are placed in group C alongside Rwanda, Togo and Morocco.
