Former Super Eagles’ defender, Isaac Semitoje has come out with an enthusiastic prediction that the globally escalating coronavirus ailment will soon be a thing of the past in Nigeria and other countries, megasportsarena.com reports.
While acknowledging that COVID-19 had brought about disruptions to football activity at home and abroad, the Tunisia ’94 Africa Cup of Nations winner admitted that the only thing people can do for now is follow health instructions and pray for the pandemic to fade away.
He went on to express hope that COVID-19 will not affect AFCON 2021, as the qualifiers are yet to be concluded, but the former New Nigeria Bank FC and Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City as well as ex-Iwuayanwu Nationale of Owerri stopper expressed optimism that everything will soon be back to normal.
Although he did not put a finger on an exact date when he thinks coronavirus will fade away, Semitoje stated confidently that the deadly disease will not prevent AFCON 2021 from going ahead in Cameroon from January 9 to February 6, especially as the European Championship has now been shifted till the summer of same year.
Semitoje told allnigeriasoccer.com: “We are indeed in troubled times and it’s sad that this disease has affected sports and football in particular. As it is now nobody knows when football will be back and if the AFCON is in danger of not holding in January, I will say let’s hope before then that the Coronavirus will be over.
“Looking back now it seems a good decision to move it to January and February of next year since the Euro 2020 was also moved to June and July. There with now be too many tournaments in the same year. For now, we should be focused on combating the disease. I believe it will be over.”
