Guinea the only hurdle

Guinea the only hurdle LIMBA MUPETAMI

WINDHOEK



The Brave Warriors of Namibia have only one hurdle in their quest to qualify for Cameroon's Africa Cup of Nations, and that is Guinea.

The Namibians will face Guinea on 28 March at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, thus focusing their entire energy on the 2021 Afcon.

Chad, which they were supposed to play on 24 March, was banned from global football recently and that handed Namibia and Mali three points each. As it now stands, Mali has already qualified for the 33rd edition of Afcon, which will be held between January and February 2022.

Mali has 13 points; Guinea sits on eight and Namibia has six points. In the first leg of the qualifiers, Guinea beat Namibia 2-0 at the Stade du 28 September stadium. If Namibia beat Guinea at home, they will qualify as this will give them nine points, however, this also means that Guinea needs to lose against Namibia and Mali.

The secretary-general of the Namibia Football Association, Franco Cosmos, confirmed that Namibia will not the travelling to Chad, but that they will continue camping and preparing for Guinea as there are only four days between the two matches.



Chad dilemma

The Chad minister of youth and sports dissolved the country's football federation recently and because Fifa regulations do not allow governments to interfere in the running of football, the sport's world governing body has issued a global ban on that country. Chad is not allowed to participate in international meetings, or to organise or participate in any other national or international ­competitions.

Namibia has called up foreign legion for the Guinea match. However, Blackburn Rovers Ryan Nyambe will miss the match due to watertight Covid-19 regulations in the United Kingdom.

“The club won't release me due to Covid-19 reasons as Namibia is on the red list and I will have to isolate when I return.

“However, we have the team to do the job. I can't contribute now, but the players are good enough,” he said.