Blow to Kenya As CAF Confirms Expulsion From AFCON Qualifiers

• Harambee Stars has officially been kicked out of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers after failing to put in place measures to lift the ban by FIFA
• Kenya was banned by FIFA at the start of the year after the government made a decision to eject the Football Kenya Federation officials from office due to misappropriation of funds
• They were set to play Cameroon, Namibia and Burundi in the race to qualify for the continental showpiece next year

Kenya men's national football team Harambee Stars have been officially expelled from the Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The decision was arrived at after the world governing body FIFA had banned Kenya from all football-related activities in February this year. FIFA had cited what it had called government interference after the Kenyan government removed the Football Kenya Federation officials from office.

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According to an official statement on CAF’s website, both Kenya and Zimbabwe are now out of the race to qualify for next year’s AFCON that will be held in Ivory Coast. Zimbabwe had similarly been banned for government interference.

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 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 qualifiers.

The qualifiers will kick-off on the first day of June 2022.

CAF had included them in the official draw earlier in April 2022 on condition that the suspension must be lifted two weeks before their first match day.

Kenya and Zimbabwe, suspended for political interference, have not yet met the criteria required by the FIFA Congress as a prerequisite for lifting their suspension.

CAF has also directed that the groups that Kenya and Zimbabwe belong to will remain with three teams. Kenya was in group C and was set to face off with Cameroon, Namibia and Burundi.

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The two associations; Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA)will be considered losers and eliminated from the competition.

Groups C and K will be composed only of three teams and the order of the matches will be maintained in accordance with the match schedule that has been communicated to the teams after the draw.

The first and runner-up teams of those groups will qualify to the final tournament.

Government disregards FIFA's advice and appoints a caretaker committee

Sports Brief has in the past reported that the tiff between the government, the Football Kenya Federation, and FIFA continues to bite. Sports Cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed recently unveiled a transition committee that will be in charge of football affairs in the country.

The transition committee takes over from the caretaker committee whose mandate came to an end two weeks ago.

The newly-appointed committee will be in charge for five weeks. There were no wholesome changes to the composition of the committee with retired judge Aaron Ringera still the chairperson. He will be deputized by Maurice Oyugi