The final stages of this year’s African Champions League must find a new venue after Cameroon said it would not host the three remaining matches of this year’s competition.
Cameroon had been asked by the Confederation of African Football last month to host two semi-finals and the final of the continent’s top club competition, which had been postponed in May because of the Covid-19 pandemic, in September.
However, Cameroon Football Federation president Seidou Mbombo Njoya told a news conference his government had vetoed the plans because of concerns over transmission of the novel coronavirus.
It means Caf must now find a new host for the matches. Record winners Al Ahly are to play last year’s runners-up Wydad Casablanca and Zamalek take on Raja Casablanca in the two semi-finals— both matches between Egyptian and Moroccan clubs.
Caf said the semi-finals would be played as single matches, with extra time and a post-match penalty shootout if necessary to decide the winner. They will also allow five substitutions per match for each team.
Elsewhere, Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha has been subjected to racist abuse on social media and the forward shared screenshots ahead of Sunday's Premier League game at Aston Villa.
The Ivory Coast international tweeted images of the messages he received from an individual on Saturday, which included one of members of the white supremacist organisation the Ku Klux Klan.
West Midlands Police said later on Sunday that a 12-year-old from Solihull had been taken into custody for sending racist messages to a footballer. They did not name Zaha.
"We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy," the police said on Twitter.
