COVID-19 has forced AFHF into changing 2020 Africa Hockey Tournament dates. Although this is not surprising to anyone, these changes have created mixed emotions within the Indoor Senior Men & Ladies Ranks when it comes to the Africa leg of the 2020 Indoor World Cup Qualifiers
The News from AFHF to move Africa Hockey Tournament dates will affect many of our Saints members who are currently in the National Youth and Senior Squads.
Most changes make sense except for one, and that is the Africa leg of the Indoor Hockey World Cup Qualifiers. These were originally planned for July this year but now according to the AFHF Media Release letter, these dates have now been scheduled for later in the year to late September 2020. This seems all fine & well, if life gets back to normal by then, and by this I mean that Namibia opens our borders and allows our athletes to Travel. Even if this happens we need to hope that South Africa who are hosting the Qualifiers are aligned by then and also open their borders for Team Sports to travel and also that they allow sporting events such as the Qualifiers to take place.
Considering there are a lot of if's involved the AFHF have however made some form of contingency by means of stating in their Media Release the following: "If the Corona situation does not allow this plan to materialise, then the indoor Hockey World Rankings would be used for qualification to the IWC 2021 taking place in Liege, Belgium (3-7 Feb 2021).
By Virtue of this statement the SA Men and Namibia Ladies will be going to the IWC as was the case in 2018 and the Namibia Men and SA Ladies will be left at Home licking their wounds.
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