INTERNATIONAL GAMES COULD BE OFF UNTIL 2021 - FIFA

MBABANE – “International soccer might not be played until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions.”

This was said by Victor Montagliani, a Canadian who has been heading a FIFA working group formulating plans to deal with the implications of the world’s biggest sport being largely shut down since last month.
This means that Sihlangu will not be in action until next year and this means that the current crop of coaches in the national teams could earn over a million for doing nothing.

The head coach Dominic Kunene’s gross income is reportedly E360 000 while his assistant and trainers in Gcina ‘Magiyane’ Dlamini(assistant), Anthony Mdluli (goalkeeper coach) and Mbuso Gina (physical trainer) reportedly gross a combined E720 000 annually.

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The coaches were given a one-year contract which started from January. Since their time of hiring, Sihlangu has not played any official match.
They were to play Congo Brazzaville last month in the AFCON qualifiers but CAF postponed the games.
Also on the cards for Sihlangu were COSAFA Cup in June, AFCON Qualifiers second leg in September.

 FIFA already has called off matches between countries that were due to be played in March and June. Montagliani believes the September, October and November windows for national team matches could be scrapped.

“I personally think that might be a bit of a challenge, not so much because of just the health issues around the world and the various degrees of preparedness, but also committing to international travel as soon as we come back,” Montagliani said in an interview with The Associated Press.
 “I think that domestic football is a priority. September is still in the books, but I would garner to say that I’m not sure it’s there on solid ground the way things are trending right now.

 “I’m fairly confident the March window in 2021 will be fine,” Montagliani said. “The priority is to help our national leagues … then look at our events.”
The qualifying format for the World Cup in Qatar might have to be curtailed with the time frame tightening to play matches to reach the tournament that starts in November 2022.

reformatting

“We’re likely going to be having to seriously look at reformatting some of our events,” Montagliani said. “We’re committed to our final four (in the Nations League). But we have other events that we have to probably look at reformatting, whether it’s some of our youth competitions, even our World Cup qualifying, where we’re going to have to, in the balance of probabilities, look at how that would work in a situation where the calendar there is now less than what we expected it to be.”

Efforts to get comments from Eswatini Football Association (EFA) Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe proved futile as when called several times yesterday, his mobile phone rang unanswered.

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