As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt football activities across the continent, two more African nations have now cancelled their league campaigns for the season.
On Tuesday, the Ethiopian Football Federation confirmed that football activities had been cancelled for the season following the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“Considering the country is under a state of emergency and the unpredictability of the coronavirus outbreak, we have decided to cancel this year’s all league games,” an official statement read, per the BBC.
According to Ethiopian League Company President Lieutenant Fekade Mamo, with State of Emergency to stay at least until the end of August and the pandemic might hit hard in the coming months of June, July and August, cancelling the season stood the only option. “The Board discussed every single issue including declaring the league’s leader a champion. But the majority of member clubs agreed on cancelling the season for there still stands a mathematical probability of winning the title even for eleven points Hadiya-Hossana currently bottom of the table with 13 fixtures to go” Board Chairman Fekade suggested.
The decision comes just days after the Guinean Football Association took similar measures, with both nations declaring their respective seasons “null and void” rather than crowning champions.
Last month, Mauritius became the first African nation to abandon football for the campaign, with Kenya and three other countries having since followed suit. Football could be returning in Mali and Zambia, however, after those federations informed CAF of their intention to complete the 2019/20 season.
CAF had previously requested all of its member nations to advise whether they planned to continue or cancel their respective domestic campaigns by Tuesday, 5 May.
(BBC)