The Confederation of African Football has dismissed rumours that the Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to hold next year in Cameroon could be postponed or moved from the West African country following the recent discovery of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19.

READ ALSO: Omicron coranavirus: Senate pressures uk to remove nigeria from red list

Africa’s football showpiece, which has already been delayed because of the global pandemic, is due to kick off on January 9 in Yaounde with the final on February 6.

The new variant has however sparked rumours that the competition could be moved after travel restrictions have been introduced by some countries on several African nations.

The ban by the United Kingdom and Canada on Nigeria, which neighbours Cameroon, had also fuelled the suggestions that the tournament could be moved to Qatar.

However, speaking with BBC Sport Africa, CAF’s director of communications, Alex Siewe, says neither his organisation nor leading Cameroon officials have discussed such events.

“We can’t keep spending time dealing with rumours,” he told BBC Sport Africa.

“We did not receive any other message or information from our leaders – nothing such as changing of dates or countries. We did not discuss such during all our last meetings.”

We are on site. We are working.”

Siewe also confirmed that staff from the CAF arrived in Cameroon this week to organise the AFCON finals.
“An official delegation from CAF has been released and general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba is joining us in two days,” he added.