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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
AS Covid-19 continues to affect African football, 21 countries are struggling to complete their leagues while some, like Zimbabwe, are not likely to kick-off for the second year in a row.

The continent is grappling with the third wave of Covid-19.

So far, 21 African countries are yet to complete their 2020-21 season. Most of the countries were supposed to round up business in May. So far, three associations have confirmed that they will not have clubs taking part in continental football.

Mauritius, Lesotho, and Cape Verde have since confirmed that they will not be represented in the forthcoming CAF’s club competitions.

The local league in Zimbabwe is unlikely to start this season unless the Premier Soccer League gets approval in the coming weeks and returns under the new season which will run from August this year to May next year.

ZIFA and PSL have been making frantic efforts for football to be played but they have not succeeded as the experimental Chibuku Super Cup has also been blighted by the Covid-19 scourge.

The Botswana league, like Zimbabwe, has also been inactive since the pandemic began.

The Namibian league was halted last month while other southern African region countries such as Zambia and South Africa have managed to complete theirs.

The Malawian league is currently ongoing and is likely going to be concluded year-end.

Mauritius suspended their league last week due to financial constraints to bankroll strict adherence to the protocols required by their Government amid rising cases.

The Mauritian federation in a statement said they are now working on the new season. “With the ongoing uncertainty of the sanitary conditions in the country tied with the government’s directives on the practice of team sports being subject to strict protocols, together with the legal frameworks on player transfers regulations and the financial resources needed by our different clubs to return to play, a unanimous decision was reached to declare the season 2020/2021 null and void,” read the statement.

The federation, which also cancelled Cup competitions, says they are not going to declare any champions this season.

“The lives and health of all our stakeholders and the nation at large remain our utmost priority. Our main challenge now lies in the organisation of the season 2021/2022 under the new sanitary conditions imposed by the government,” read the statement.

The local league in Zimbabwe had resumed with the Chibuku Super Cup.

But the tournament was twice cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country.

The Cup witnessed a 600 percent increase in cases, when the tournament was allowed to resume, last month.

The first-round matches, which were played over a month, had recorded only four cases.

But, 24 cases were recorded, within two weeks, of resumption, leading to a fresh ban on the tournament by the Sports Commission.

“It is clear that any return to top-flight football at this stage can only happen if a full bio-secure bubble environment is implemented, where players and officials reside in controlled environments, for the duration of the tournament,’’ the Sports Commission said.

“This is the position implemented by cricket and rugby, among other protocols, leading to the various exceptions granted to them, in the present environment.

“Everyone desires a quick return to sport.

“But, the return must be handled in a responsible manner, where objectivity is informed by science, WHO protocols, Government policies, and the law, as opposed to calculated emotion.’’

Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister, Kirsty Coventry, also said she felt the pain being felt by the football family, after the Chibuku Super Cup, was recently halted once again. However, she believes the move that was taken was in the best interest of not only the players, and officials, but the country, as a whole. Once the situation, related to the third wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, improves, Coventry said, a review will be made and, the country’s flagship knockout football tournament, could return.

“I have seen and read the sadness that has been felt, especially in soccer,’’ Coventry recently told The Herald.