Djibouti, Sudan disqualified from U-17 AFCON qualifiers

_{The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has disqualified the national U-17 teams of Djibouti and Sudan from the qualifiers of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) for the CECAFA Zone.}

_{Auka Gecheo, the CECAFA Executive Director said the two teams were disqualified after some of their players were not found eligible to play after the mandatory Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests.}

_{All the eight teams that arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ready for the qualifiers had to undergo MRI tests.}

_{Gecheo confirmed that the CAF Youth Organizing Committee decided to disqualify the two teams in accordance with article 27.4 of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations regulations. The article stipulates that: “ If after performing the age eligibility test (MRI) for a participating team and one (1) player was found noneligible, the participating team will be disqualified.”}

_{Gecheo explained that another draw will now be conducted on October 2nd, 2022 and the qualifiers will kick-off on Monday. Since Rwanda and Eritrea had earlier withdrawn, each group will now consist of three teams.}

_{The teams that will play in the qualifiers include hosts Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Burundi and defending champions Uganda.}

_{The best two teams from each group will qualify for the semi finals. The winners and runners-up will qualify to represent the region in the U-17 AFCON 2023 in Algeria.}