CAF cancels CHAN tournament, replaces it with new competition

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has cancelled the African Nations Championship (CHAN).

The decision was announced by CAF president Patrice Motsepe at a press conference in Morocco on Saturday.

According to Motsepe, the tournament will be replaced by the Africa Nations League, which will be introduced this year.

The CAF boss also explained the financial burden of the CHAN, describing it as a costly tournament that no longer fits into CAF’s new strategic vision.

“The CHAN is a spectacular money loser. The first thing I was told when I became the President said ‘Kill the CHAN’. We allocated resources to it because of some countries who said it helped them,” said Motsepe.

“I can tell you for certain there is no CHAN anymore. The African Nations League will more than replace that. We will restructure our competitions. Europe doesn’t dictate the calendar. We also have to stop the nonsense that, ‘these people are enemies of those people’.

“We are going to have the best mutually beneficial relationship with Europe, Asia, South America, North America and the rest of the world.”

Introduced in 2009 for locally based players and held every two years, the final edition of the CHAN tournament took place last year in East Africa, co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Zimbabwe appeared at the tournament five times with their best finishing coming in 2014 when they were placed fourth.

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