May 24 – Kenya and Zimbabwe will not feature in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations after they were kicked out of the upcoming qualifiers by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
“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,” said CAF in a statement on Monday.
The two countries have been banned from the game by the global governing body FIFA because of governmental interference, but they were included in the recent draw for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Their participation was subject to their ban being lifted two weeks before the first qualifiers in June.
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) was taken over by a caretaker committee following alleged misappropriation of funds while Zimbabwe’s government suspended the Zimbabwe FA (Fifa) for “gross incompetence”.
CAF added that “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 for the final tournament.”
Group C will consist of just Cameroon, Namibia and Burundi while Zimbabwe will no longer play Morocco, South Africa and Liberia in Group K.
Ivory Coast will host next year’s Africa Cup of Nations. In February, Senegal won the continental championship defeating Egypt in the final in Yaounde.
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