The Emergency Committee of Confederation of African Football (CAF), in consultation with world governing body FIFA, has postponed the CAF qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup slated for Qatar.
The first set of matches in the qualification competition were due to be played in June.
But the postponement came after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, CAF said in a statement on Thursday.
It added that the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams were available for all teams necessitated the development.
Reports state that the qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November, and March 2022.
CAF also said it was reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of COVID-19 related protocols.
This includes specifically focusing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows.