AFCON 2023: CAF Disclose Why Teams Observe Cooling Breaks During Games in the Competition

• CAF has confirmed why cooling breaks were introduced in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations
• The cooling break is one of the significant measures that was introduced in the competition
• The African Football Body organised a workshop regarding the tournament on Monday

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has explained why teams observe two cooling breaks during matches at the ongoing 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

The tournament kicked off on January 11, and one of the significant things added was the introduction of cooling breaks.

Both teams will have a two-minute break in the 30th minute in the first half and the 75th minute in the second period.

In a workshop organised by CAF with media, Sports Brief was there live when the representative of the African Football governing body disclosed the reason behind the introduction of cooling breaks to this year's tournament.

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"When we came to this competition, one of our biggest worries was the weather. We knew we would find a country that was hot, and, more or less, all the venues are at the same altitude," the body confirmed.

"We put in place a program to measure the temperature at daylight and night, and I want to tell you that there are two kinds of measurement; one is done when there's light, meaning you can do them during the day, and there's the heat index that's done at night which measures the humidity and the temperature.

"We have some criteria to do when the temperature is above 28 degrees, and we implemented the cooling breaks that can be once in each half, and it can be one in only one half because the temperature can completely change during the match.

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"In very high conditions, we can even have two cooling breaks per half, but until now, thank God we didn't have any issues with that."

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Nigeria, South Africa, Congo DR, and Ivory Coast are the four teams left in the competition, with the semi-final kicking off on Wednesday.