Soccer
AFCON squad deadline set
2012-11-23 07:49
Johannesburg - The Confederation of African Football has confirmed the 9 January
deadline for final squad submissions ahead of the 2013 African Cup of
Nations.
According to
football411.com website, the African confederation wants all 23-man squad lists sent to
its Cairo headquarters by midnight GMT on the 9th of January. Failing to
do so will result in a fine and infringing countries will only be
allowed to take a 22-man squad to the finals.
Along with their 23-man squads, countries will be allowed to bring a delegation of 17 officials.
Hosts South Africa are set to play the opening match against Cape
Verde Islands on the 19th of January at the FNB stadium with new Bafana
manager Gordon Igesund still assessing his options as to who will be in
his final squad.
"There are maybe six or seven players who urgently need to prove
their fitness in the next four weeks so that we can know what our
options are," Igesund told IOL.
"Our first Afcon match is on January 19. If I can get all the
players by January 1, that would give me a good three weeks to work with
them. And trust me, we will be a very different team, at least 30%
better," he added on Times Live.