By Husna Muhdhar,
The Confederation of African Football [CAF] has confirmed the Kenya national football team has been removed from the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
This follows the government’s failure to meet demands given by the world governing body FIFA to reinstate the federation after suspending them in February.
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| Harambee Stars pose for photo ahead of one of their previous AFcon qualifiers. |
“As a consequence of having failed to have their suspensions by FIFA set aside, CAF has confirmed that both Kenya and Zimbabwe will not participate in the Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 qualifiers,’’ a statement from CAF said.
The two nations had initially been included in the draw on provision that they successfully appealed against their FIFA suspensions.
Both countries were suspended in February for “undue interference by a third party, also termed as “political interference”.
“The two associations; Football Kenya Federation and the Zimbabwe Football Association will be considered losers and eliminated from the competition,” the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Both Kenya and Zimbabwe’s associations were dissolved by their respective governments last year and subsequently suspended by FIFA in February.
Sports Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed, disbanded the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) over government interference that led to a suspension from FIFA this year. The CS appointed a caretaker committee to run football affairs in the country. The mandate lapsed two weeks ago and she changed the same committee into a transition team that will run football affairs in the country for the next five weeks.
CAF has now moved to expel Kenya from the competition meaning that Group C will remain with two teams. Stars had been pooled against Cameroon, Namibia, and Burundi in Group C and the three teams will now battle it out for the two AFCON slots.
Kenya was set to play in an away match against Cameroon in Yaounde on June 4. Two home matches against Namibia and Burundi would have followed before a trip to Burundi. The second last game would have been played in Nairobi against Cameroon before ending the qualifying journey in Windhoek Namibia.
The country has already missed out on the qualification for the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations [WAFCON]. Kenya is yet to miss out on the qualification for the next year’s Africa Nations Championship [CHAN] whose draw is scheduled for Thursday.
The situation has led the country not to participate in the championship and if the situation remains the same, then no Kenyan team will have the chance to play in next year’s CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup while Women’s league winners Vihiga Queens will not play in the qualifiers for the second edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League.
