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Toronto – Eritrea and Ethiopia were scheduled to have a CHAN2024 qualifier game in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on October 31. A return match was scheduled to take place on November 3, 2024.
The game is now canceled after Eritrea announced its withdrawal from the qualifier game which means that it is also withdrawing from the CHAN 2025 tournament. Three East African countries – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will be hosting it in February next year.
According to Eye Radio report, which cited the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Ethiopia will be playing, following the withdrawal of Eritrea, against Sudan or Tanzania in the final qualification round.
The relation between Eritrea and Ethiopia has been deteriorating since the Pretoria Agreement which ended the war between the Federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) for reasons clearly unspecified. Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia denied it saying “nothing has changed” in the relation between the two countries.
However, there is no indication if Eritrea’s recent withdrawal from CHAN2024 is related to the decline in the relation between the two countries.
Eritrea has a history of recurring withdrawal from soccer tournaments. Eye Radio wrote “Eritrea has consistently withdrawn from various tournaments, including the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and more recently to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers due to concerns over player defections.”
In 2019, seven members of Eritrea’s national team defected after a game in Uganda. In 2015, ten Eritrean players sought a political asylum in Botswana.
Eritrea’s Ministry of Information has not yet remarked about its latest decision to withdraw the national team from the tournament.
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I told you! I told you!! I told you!!! Ethiopia and Eritrea were supposed to play two matches in CHAN group stage but both games were cancelled because Ethiopia withdrew from the competition. It was so scared of Eritrea that it decided to disqualify itself. Big sissy!!! It is said that every African team is so scared of the Eritrean team that the league decided to let Eritrea advance to the final. I am flying to Asmara tomorrow to personally congratulate the people there. See, I told you I am the best reporter in the world! Am I genius or what!!!
This individual is experiencing severe health problems and mental instability. It appears that this is a common disease in Eritrea. Is there someone who can assist him in reading the article?
Eritrea was afraid of two things. The most likely reason why Eritrea abandoned the game is fear of being severely humiliated by Ethiopia. Or, the athletes will never return home and view this as an opportunity to defect. This has happened numerous times