JOHANNESBURG – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) club season will run between September or October and May from 2019 to bring it in line with most Africa leagues, said the organisation on Wednesday.
CAF Champions Leagues and second-tier CAF Confederation Cup fixtures are played between February and November. Clubs involved in August to May domestic seasons who qualify for the group stages of the CAF competitions are deprived of an off-season break and pre-season training.
The spokesperson of CAF, Junior Binyam said the 2018 competitions, whose preliminary and first-round draws were made on Wednesday, would fit into a traditional February-to-November season.
It was agreed in a CAF symposium in Morocco this years to change the club season dates because the majority of African domestic leagues are run between August and May. This means, the biennial Africa Cup of Nations tournament for national teams will move from January and February to June and July from the 2019 tournament in Cameroon.
The announcement of this decision was made earlier this year to prevent club-versus-country clashes with an increasing number of Europe-based Africans reluctant to leave their clubs in mid-season.
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