Afcon qualifiers to delay start of GPL second round

The Ghana Premier League will be put on hold to foster the nation's preparations for their upcoming 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe.

Currently, in camp with a 24-man squad, the Black Stars are set to play Bafana Bafana on March 25 before returning home to host the Falcons in Accra three days later.

The Premier League is currently at its halfway stage and was originally second to return for the second round on March 19.

"The start of the second round of the Ghana Premier League has been rescheduled from Friday, March 19, 2021, to Friday, April 2, 2021," the Ghana Football Association has announced on its official website.

"The decision is to give handlers of the Black Stars ample time to prepare for the two remaining Africa Cup of National qualifiers against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe.

"The Black Stars have been fine-tuning in Accra for the two ties with a chunk of them being home-based players.

"The Ghana Premier League has been on break since Sunday. March 6, 2021.

"Stakeholders are also to take note that the outstanding game between Asante Kotoko SC and Bechem United FC originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 24, 2021 will now be played on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.

"Industry players are to take note of the changes."

After 17 rounds of matches, Karela United lead the league table with 31 points, one mark above Great Olympics. Hearts of Oak and arch-rivals Asante Kotoko hold the third and fourth spots, respectively, the Phobians sitting superior in the third position due to a better goal difference.

Ghana is currently joint-leaders in Afcon qualifying Group C, heading into the last two rounds of games.

With three wins and one loss in four games played so far, Ghana opened the qualifying series with a 2-0 home victory over South Africa before picking up a 1-0 away victory over Sao Tome and Principe on matchday two.

On matchday three, Ghana handed Sudan a 2-0 away defeat but fell in the reverse fixture in Omdurman as Mohamed Abdelrahman scored late to secure a 1-0 home triumph for the north Africans.